Orbs of Red and Blue
by duckie-force
Summary: The adventure of reluctant trainer Gupta and his accidental companion Mudkip as they travel the Hoenn region, coming face to face with rival/friend Sadik along the way and getting caught between rival groups who seek to change the world forever. Poketalia Human AU. Nearly every main character cameos somewhere.
1. How did I get here?

This story was started in June as a way of dealing with my own hype for the Hoenn remakes. It's more based on Emerald than Ruby and Sapphire, but contains all the stuff I like most about all the games. There'll also be things I want to see in the remakes in this, so expect mega-evolutions to appear further down the line, among a few other things.

* * *

Golden eyes opened slowly as a rather short-looking teen stirred among the assorted goods of the moving van. A light brown hand carded through short, simply cut hair. Gupta sighed a little, stretching his light build from where he had been sitting on the floor of the van. His black t-shirt rode up a little. The stiffness in his legs also made him regret wearing jeans. Moving like this was such a chore. He brushed a hand cautiously over his left ear. At least his earring wasn't pulling too much.

Gupta blinked as the van came to an abrupt stop, the boxes packed in around him shaking a little.

'This has got to breach some law somewhere,' he thought to himself. It certainly wasn't safe.

Gupta and his mother were moving to the small town of Littleroot in the region of Hoenn. His mother was going to be a gym leader in nearby Petalburg City, and Gupta… Well, he wasn't sure what he was going to do. Hopefully enrol in the local high school and live a peaceful life. At the moment, he was sitting on the floor of the movers' van taking them to their new home. His mother was in the front with the movers, but he was stuck in the back with their boxes of stuff. Seriously, there had to be some laws broken by this.

The shaking of the boxes stopped, and the door of the van opened. Gupta got to his feet and departed the vehicle. Outside, he could see a small row of houses, spaced far apart, stretching off into the distance. The town he had moved to was definitely peaceful and idyllic. Greenery was everywhere, and the people just seemed to be completely friendly. It was nothing like the city Gupta had moved from. He wasn't sure he enjoyed it much. As he jumped down from the bed of the van, he noticed his mother standing only a short distance away, outside the house the van had pulled up alongside. Her slight form was obscured by the white dress she wore; only her shoulder length, straight black hair defined her. As she turned around, Gupta noticed that despite the lack of usual jewellery (she wasn't wearing a single bracelet, although she did have her earrings in as usual), she had still applied her usual eyeshadow/eyeliner combination, making her brown eyes appear piercing and fierce. The exact image expected of her as a Gym Leader.

"Gupta, there you are. Sorry about being stuck with the things in the movers' van…" She stated, approaching him. "I was just taking a look around the inside of the house, it looks good so far." She smiled a little in approval.

Gupta nodded. "That's nice mama," he replied, "It was tough being stuck in the van though. Are you sure that's not illegal?"

His mother shook her head. "Gupta, it'll build fortitude." She replied. "And it was only for a few hours, so I'm sure it won't matter too much… Anyway, how do you like this place? It's Littleroot town, our new home…" She looked the street over, breathing in deeply. "It's certainly… Different from where we used to live… The air's cleaner at least…"

Gupta looked back towards her. "Different… Yeah, that's how I'd describe it."

"It's going to be a little hard to get used to, I know," she continued, sensing his feelings about the move, "but sometimes, you have to do things like this. Make a leap, even if it seems like a strange thing to do. And work is work… Hopefully, we'll get used to this place, and it'll turn out a blessing… Or something."

Gupta nodded. "Something like that," he agreed.

Behind them, the movers were sending out Machoke and Machamp from Pokeballs, and the muscle-bound Pokémon were busying themselves with picking up heavy boxes and moving them inside the house.

"It shouldn't take long to get everything moved in now," Gupta's mother decided, moving a little closer to her son. "You should go in there in a minute and have a look around. See how everything is. Especially check that your room is how you want it."

"Okay mama." Gupta nodded, heading into the house. Amazingly, the movers and their Pokémon were working incredibly fast, already unpacking and wiring up the various appliances that made up the kitchen-diner and the living room that comprised the ground floor of the house. Largely ignoring them, Gupta made his way upstairs to see how the rest of the house looked. He found himself in a small corridor, containing only three doors, which he assumed lead to a bathroom and two bedrooms. He had no idea which door led where though. Sighing, he decided he'd have to try all the doors and work it out. The door at the end of the room led to, perhaps predictably, a shower, so he tried the door to his right. Sticking his neck around the door, he saw a king-size, ornate bed in a rather ancient style, a wardrobe that matched the décor of the rest of the room well, and a pile of boxes, none of which looked like they belonged to him at all. So not his room. He turned around, facing the door across the corridor. So, it had to be that one. He strode up to the door and opened it.

Inside, he found a room larger than what he was accustomed to. A large rug stood in the middle of the room, simple, blue, and in Gupta's eyes, boring. He would have to see if he could get that changed. The rest of the floor was wooden, and the walls were a mute white. Not that Gupta minded about that too much. To one side of the room there was a small double bed which was new and had just been assembled for the first time. Gupta walked over to it and stroked the bare mattress, looking over the plain bleached wood design. On the other side of the room there was a worn sofa that contrasted with the new aspect of everything else. Gupta was nothing if not sentimental though, and did not want to change it. Next to the sofa there was a small TV with a games console underneath. Gupta didn't play many video games, but a distant relative had bought the console one birthday, and he found it was appealing to others his age, so kept it around to give himself and others something to do. The only other furniture in the room was a desk pressed against the same wall as the door, with a computer and notebook placed on it, a small bleached wooden wardrobe pushed against the wall closest to his bed, and a clock screwed into the wall next to the desk. There was no furniture pressed against the wall with the window in it (there weren't even any curtains yet), but Gupta walked up to the window anyway, checking the frames, watching the view over the rest of the small town. From his window he could see the movers' van, a few rows of houses, and a large complex that took up most of the rest of the view. He couldn't fathom what it could be. A ranch? A farm? Away from the complex, back towards the periphery of his view, there was a small school, situated at the edge of the town. Overall, it looked much as Gupta had first assumed.

"It looks pretty good up here," his mother noted, coming into the room. "Seems like the movers sorted everything in here quickly. I did ask them to handle the upstairs first, although we will have to deal with the curtains and bed sheets ourselves."

Gupta agreed. "It does look nice up here mama."

The woman nodded. "Did you check everything is where it should be? I unpacked some of your smaller things while I was checking this room out, but your clothes are still in the boxes in my room, and I didn't quite finish with everything on your desk before I came down to see you," she pointed to a box placed next to the desk.

"It's okay," Gupta interjected. "I can unpack the rest of the things."

"I'll be downstairs if you need me then," she replied, turning towards the door again. "Oh, and don't forget to set the clock," she added before leaving.

Gupta nodded, moving towards the clock on the wall. It was newly bought… And stopped at midnight, as if waiting for someone to set it. But didn't the people who worked in the shops that sold such clocks usually set them before selling them? Gupta wasn't sure why this clock was any different. Still, he pulled out the tape at the back and set the clock to the correct time before moving onto his desk, unpacking his things and placing them either on the desk or in the drawers. While he was doing this, he also looked at his computer, which had two new menu options to it he didn't remember adding: Item storage and mailbox. He assumed one had something to do with e-mail, but he had no idea how a computer could store items, or why he would need something like that.

"This region seems to have its own oddities," he assumed to himself, moving on to flip over the notebook laid out on the desk. It had been blank before he had packed it away to move, but now two lines of text were written in it. The first read 'open the menu with start' and the second read 'record your progress with save'. Gupta had absolutely no idea what the text was going on about. He knew nothing of any menu, or the ability to start or save anything. Confused, he decided to head downstairs, where he saw his mother finishing unpacking the cutlery and cooking utensils.

"Are you finished looking over your room? I think it's bigger than your old one, but I'm not sure," she commented, before he'd even announced his presence. However quiet Gupta was his mother's hearing was better. "We're nearly done down here too. Moving Pokémon can be really convenient sometimes."

Gupta nodded noncommittally. "My room seems fine… there are some strange words written in the notebook though. Do you know where they came from?" He asked.

"As far as I was aware, the notebook was blank," she continued, looking up at him. "That does seem strange…" She thought for a minute. "Anyway, if there's nothing else wrong, I think I can handle the rest of the move by myself… Why don't you go introduce yourself to the neighbours? I think there's even a famous Pokémon professor living in this town," she suggested.

"A professor?" Gupta blinked. Was that what the compound visible from his window was? A Pokémon lab? "Okay then, I'll take a look around," he agreed, waving goodbye to his mother before leaving the house. Outside, the movers' van was still there, so Gupta decided to move off down the street, trying his hardest to be civil to people… However hard he found it sometimes. He really wasn't a people person…


	2. the Bizarre Professor

Gupta finally gets a pokemon in this chapter. Also, I really love Mudkip's personality in this, so he's going to be spending a lot of time outside of the pokeball in this fic.

* * *

Gupta trudged down the street, shaking his head a little. All morning he had gone to and fro between everyone at home in the street he had moved into, introducing himself to the strangers he had found. Finally, there was only one house left. The neighbours from across the road hadn't been in when he had first set out, but when he had returned home, his mother had told him that someone had arrived at the house not long ago. He had figured that he'd better introduce himself to this other person too; no need to seem impolite after all, and news likely travelled fast in a place this small. Still, as he walked up to the house to knock on the door, he had to admit that he was glad there was nobody else he had to talk to. Hopefully he could go home after this and sort out his room. He knocked on the door and waited for some middle aged guy to answer. Surprisingly, there was no such person within the house; instead, a boy of a similar age to him opened the door and stared at him, an accommodating smile on his face. The other teen was tall, with green eyes and olive skin. He was a little more heavily built than Gupta, with light muscle showing beneath the loose green shirt and tan shorts he was wearing. His dark brown hair was slightly messy and ended in a double curl at the base of his neck. Overall, the boy appeared friendly.

"Hey there!" The teen greeted. "Prof. Batsaikhan's out at the moment, but I can take a message for him if ya'd like…" He trailed off, looking Gupta over. "I have to admit though, I've never seen yer before."

"It won't be necessary, but thanks," Gupta cut in. "My name's Gupta, I just moved in over the road, and just… Wanted to introduce myself." Man, did Gupta think he sounded awkward. The boy in the house seemed not to care though.

"Ah, right, it's good to meet ya then Gupta," the smile on the teen's face seemed to grow larger if anything. "I'm Sadik. My older cousin's the professor of Pokémon around here, so people always seem to come to our house to ask questions… Anyway, hope to see ya around, we'll probably even be in the same class at school." He grinned, giving off an aura of friendliness.

"Okay, sure. I'll see you later then," Gupta waved, awkwardly heading back towards his house. The other teen seemed nice enough, but Gupta was always a little cold around new people, so Sadik's outright warmth and friendliness towards a total stranger was baffling to him. He figured he had better just head home to finish moving in. He could always try to make friends later.

When he arrived home though, his mother was insistent that he head over to the town's Pokémon lab.

"You really should meet the professor, I've heard great things about him," she explained simply, leaving Gupta to walk the streets of the small town again. In truth, he had no idea how to get to the lab, and despite the town's small size he was still lost fairly quickly. Luckily for the teen, he soon met Sadik again, completely by accident.

"Hey, if it isn't Guppie again!" He greeted, causing Gupta to cringe a little inside. Had he really found a nickname for him already…? "Are ya still introducing yerself to people?" He continued.

"Hello Sadik," he greeted back, rather deadpan. "I'm still looking around, although I appear to be lost… I can't find the Pokémon lab anywhere..."

"Ah. Okay, ya really wanna go that way." Sadik grabbed Gupta's shoulders and spun him around until he was facing the one road he hadn't gone down yet. 'Perfect, it had to be that one,' Gupta thought to himself.

"Although," Sadik continued, "If yer looking for my cousin, ya might wanna check the grassland outside of town if he's not in his lab-which he often isn't- cos he likes to research the Pokémon living out there."

"Alright, thanks." Gupta nodded in affirmation, walking off down the path Sadik had told him led to the Pokémon lab. The road was shorter than he had expected- Gupta reasoned that the town was clearly just that small- and before long at all, he had made it to the building surrounded by paddocks that he assumed to be the Pokémon lab. As he peered through the door though, he noticed the inside to be empty. Rows of benches covered with paperwork and a collection of various large, complicated looking machines were all that were to be found inside the lab. A quick check around the outside revealed to Gupta only a few minor researchers feeding the gathered Pokémon, and so the teen headed back up the road he had come down, carrying on past the street his house was on until he reached the edge of town.

Before him, he could see a small woodland area, full of knee-high grass as well as more trodden down areas that were used by people to walk between this town and the next. If Sadik was right, the professor was here. As Gupta walked towards the first grassy area, he heard a cry come from somewhere close to him.

"Gah… Somebody help!"

Hurrying towards the sound, Gupta soon caught sight of someone being chased around by some kind of small dog-like Pokémon… A Poochyena as far as he could tell. The man being chased had long, black, braided hair that was tied back in a ponytail, glasses perched on his nose and a pissed off expression. Brown eyes were wide with fear and shock. He wasn't as tall as Sadik, but he was hardly exceptionally short either; definitely taller than Gupta at least. As far as the teen could tell, this was probably the professor, if the lab coat thrown around his shoulders was anything to go by. As he stepped closer, the prof noticed him.

"You over there… There's a Pokeball in my bag. Help, okay?" He requested as Gupta got closer.

"Why can't he run over here to get it himself…?" Gupta wondered out loud. The man was surely keeping a fast enough pace to escape the chasing Pokémon, at least long enough to get back to his bag which was abandoned in the grass close to Gupta. No answer was fore coming though, so he took a few steps towards the bag and delved in, picking the first Pokeball he found inside.

'Now what do I do?' he pondered, unsure of how exactly trainers released Pokémon to battle. The Poochyena was still chasing the professor though, so he did the first thing that came to mind and threw the ball at the enemy.

"Mudkip!" Cried the emerging Pokémon, and the Poochyena instantly took notice, turning and chasing after its new foe.

"Okay, what now?" Gupta wasn't really sure how to react. He knew he had to fight, but knew nothing of what this Pokémon was capable of. The Poochyena rammed into Mudkip and it slammed back in retaliation.

'So I guess it knows tackle at least…' Gupta noted.

"Okay Mudkip… Tackle?" Damn, talking to a Pokémon like this was embarrassing and sounded all strange… What if it didn't even listen to him? Luckily for Gupta, Mudkip launched a quick tackle at the foe, forcing the Poochyena to the ground. It reacted by growling deeply, and Mudkip looked just a little afraid.

"…Just tackle again." Gupta sighed, his colder nature coming through. Somehow, Mudkip got the message, throwing itself at the Poochyena and pushing it back against a tree. Defeated, the wild Pokémon stalked off.

"Mud…Kip!" The professor's Pokémon celebrated, jumping from foot to foot.

"Ah, that was pretty good for a young man… Especially someone who seemed to have no prior experience with Pokémon training," the professor congratulated, walking back towards Gupta and Mudkip.

"Thanks? But I didn't really do anything…" Gupta was really unsure as to how this worked. After all, Mudkip probably could have done it all by itself.

"Don't be silly. Mudkip had faith in you, and your strong stance and refusal to give up prevented him from becoming afraid and running away," the professor explained.

"'Him?' How can you tell?" Gupta was a little confused. There was nothing to mark Mudkip out as either male or female.  
"Mudkip is an animal Pokémon, as opposed to one more mineral in nature. They reproduce sexually, so of course there are males and females," the professor offered by way of explanation. "Anyway, that's enough for now. Let's go back to the lab," he decided, already walking back in the direction of the town, picking up his bag along the way, Mudkip following behind him.

"Uhh…" Gupta blinked, left behind afterwards. He was still holding Mudkip's Pokeball…

Since he was still holding the Pokeball belonging to the Pokémon he had borrowed before, Gupta headed back towards the Pokémon lab, where he found the professor deep in discussion with one of the other researchers, Mudkip standing at their feet, looking between them and smiling in a spaced-out kind of way. As he entered the lab, the professor turned to acknowledge him.

"Ah, you're the kid from before. You made it," he smiled a little. "What you did before was a great help… And you seem to me to have the makings of a great trainer."

"How can you tell that? You only watched one battle, and it's not like Mudkip couldn't have done it himself…" Gupta muttered, but nobody paid any attention.

"Yep, I'm sure you could be a Pokémon master… And Mudkip seems to like you. So I've decided to let you keep him." The professor nodded in finality.

"Professor Batsaikhan? Are you sure?" The researcher asked, astounded.

"Of course. Still, you'll need some training…And I should probably ask for your name," the professor mused.

"I'm Gupta. I just moved here," Gupta explained, a little overwhelmed as to what was happening.

"Ah, that'll explain why I've never seen you before… Anyway, my cousin'll show you the ropes… He recently got his own Pokémon you see. He's about your age actually, so you two should be able to learn from each other easily." The professor dismissed, his mind entirely made up. He crouched down to Mudkip's level. "Mudkip, I want you to go with Gupta," he ordered the Pokémon, who looked between the professor and Gupta, tilted his head, and waddled calmly over to Gupta's side.

"Mud…Kip!" He barked in affirmation, seemingly cheerful.

"Alright then. Sadik should be training on route 103," the professor continued. "If you can defeat him in battle and then return here, I'll give you a little something."

Gupta nodded. He didn't really mind about any reward, but it seemed like that was what everyone wanted him to do. "Okay," he agreed. At least it would give him an excuse to visit the next town over? He vaguely remembered his mother saying route 103 was the other side of Oldale town, a short walk away from Littleroot. He looked down to Mudkip, who was now sitting at his feet. "Let's go," he told the Pokémon, turning around to leave the lab. Mudkip stared after him for a moment before getting up and following.

"Thanks again," he nodded to the professor as he opened the door, Mudkip walking into the back of his legs since he hadn't been paying attention. As Gupta left the lab he had to make sure that he didn't close the door on the dopey Pokémon. He sighed. This was going to be a long trip.


	3. So I heard you like Mudkips

Gupta finally departs on his journey. Sort of. And the references begin.

* * *

As Gupta walked back up the road towards the rest of town, Mudkip skipping along behind him, he noticed his mother was standing outside his house, cleaning the area in front of the door.

"Gupta," she waved as he got close. "Have you introduced yourself to everyone now?"

The teen nodded. "Have you finished unpacking everything yet?" he came to stand a few feet away from her, Mudkip again walking into his legs before sitting at his feet behind him.

"More or less… I finished hanging the curtains and other things like that too. So other than a few minor details, we're pretty much finished with the move," she confirmed, looking pleased with the fact.

"Mudkip?" Mudkip queried, looking around Gupta's legs. It was at this point that Gupta's mother noticed the Pokémon, and the Pokeball that Gupta still held in one hand.

"A Mudkip? Did the professor give you a Pokémon?" She asked, not missing a thing.

"He did. I'm not exactly sure why. I found him being chased by a Poochyena, picked up a Pokeball and sent out Mudkip. He then defeated it and now the professor thinks I'm some prodigy or something," Gupta confirmed, shrugging. He really had no idea what was going on…

"I see…" His mother crouched down to Mudkip's level. "He seems to like you though…" she noted.

"I'm not sure he doesn't just like everyone," Gupta deadpanned.

"Hmm..." His mother reached out her hand to Mudkip, and he walked over to her happily, sniffing her hand before leaning into it, nuzzling.

"See?" Gupta tilted his head.  
"He's just young… He wants to be loved," she decided, before looking back to her son. "Although… He has followed you all the way here. And you're still clutching that pokeball… Do you have any idea what you're doing?"

"Well… No. I thought that was obvious," Gupta replied, again deadpan.

"Right…" She breathed, "Do you need me to teach you then?"

Gupta nodded, at least a little glad that someone was finally trying to tell him what was going on.  
"Okay, it's pretty simple. If you press the button on the ball there, you can return Mudkip to the Pokeball. Then you just put it in your pocket and walk around with it. It's that simple," she instructed.

"…It's a little big to just fit in a pocket," Gupta replied.

"If you hold the button down, it'll shrink," his mother shook her head. "You can try it now if you want."

Gupta looked over to Mudkip, who had spaced out while they were talking and was now watching the Beautiflies some distance away. "Mudkip," he called and the Pokémon turned to him and waddled back.

"Rest now," he told the Pokémon, holding the Pokeball in front of his face and pressing the button. Mudkip was returned to the capsule, and he then shrunk the ball before stuffing it into his pocket.

"There," his mother nodded in finality.

"Okay. So now I have to go find the professor's cousin on route 103 and defeat his Pokémon" Gupta mused, changing the subject.

"Do you know what kind of Pokémon he has?" She asked.

"No clue," Gupta retorted.

"Well, it'll probably be either a Torchic or a Treecko. So plan accordingly," she advised.

"Thanks. Not that I know anything about either of those Pokémon," Gupta shrugged.

"Well, they are rare. But bear this in mind. Mudkip will learn mud slap when it gets just a little bit stronger. That could help you a lot," she pointed out.

"Alright mama, thanks. I'll head off to route 103 now." Gupta waved as he began to walk towards the road out of town.

"Good luck with your battle," she called after him as he left.

Gupta had been walking for less than an hour when Oldale town came into view. For the most part, he had been able to stay out of the tall grass in which Pokémon lived, but as the settlement drew up in the distance, the teen reached a ledge that he couldn't quite climb up. The only way around involved walking straight through the tall grass.

"This is really badly designed… What do the people without Pokémon do?" He wondered aloud. "Come to think of it… how do vehicles get past this?" As he looked around though, he saw no other way ahead. So he stepped into the tall grass. Immediately, a Zigzagoon jumped out at him. Gupta jumped back, but the Pokémon seemed intent on challenging him.

'I don't have any other Pokeballs so I can't try to catch it… So I'll have to battle it,' Gupta planned mentally, reaching into his pocket and pulling out the Pokeball containing Mudkip before throwing it.

"Mudkip?" The Pokémon tilted his head to the side confused as soon as he appeared, before looking back towards Gupta and smiling.

"Mudkip, that way," Gupta pointed at the Zigzagoon. "Use tackle"

"Mud!" Mudkip barked in affirmation, running with determination towards the other Pokémon before slamming into it. Zigzagoon growled warily at him, but Mudkip appeared to have learned to take such intimidation in his stride, looking back at Gupta for reassurance for only a second before seeing his trainer's nod and going on to tackle the Pokémon again, shoving Zigzagoon back several feet. The Pokémon dug in with its feet and stopped itself from sliding, before throwing itself back at Mudkip.

"Kip!" He cried, falling back and bouncing on the grass, appearing to whine a little.

"Mudkip, get up and tackle again," Gupta commanded, causing the Pokémon to turn back towards him before nodding.

"Mud…Kip," he agreed, charging at the Zigzagoon and tackling it with full force. The Pokémon fell back and collapsed, breathing heavily before fleeing.

"Mud-kip!" Mudkip chimed happily, looking back towards Gupta.

"Okay, good," Gupta agreed, kneeling down to his Pokémon's level. "Now back into the…" Mudkip jumped on him before he could press the button on the Pokeball to return him. The Pokémon eagerly began licking Gupta's face while wagging his tail fin in happiness.

"Mud…Kip! Mudkip!" He chimed in excitement.

"I guess you really enjoy being out of the Pokeball…" Gupta mused.

"Mudkip!" Mudkip agreed.

"I don't know how much of the region you've already seen… So I suppose this is a new experience for the both of us," he continued, standing up while holding onto his Pokémon, who nuzzled into his arms contentedly. Mudkip nodded, smiling goofily.

"Okay, let's carry on then," he decided, walking off with Mudkip still in his arms. He continued walking through the grass as Mudkip leant on his forearm and gazed around at the scenery, spacing out again.

Gupta was nearly out of the grass when he stepped on the tail of a Wurmple by accident. The Pokémon reared up at him, causing the teen to jump back in surprise. The bug seemed very riled up and angry at him. Deciding he'd better defend himself, he leaned down and opened his arms, trying to let Mudkip down onto the ground. As he felt himself slipping, Mudkip gripped onto Gupta's arms, frowning and struggling.

"Mud…Kip! Mudkip…" He whined, seemingly not wanting to be put down.

"Mudkip, I need you to fight the wild Pokémon over there." Gupta sighed, prying Mudkip onto the grass. The Pokémon looked dejected for a moment before looking in the direction Gupta was staring, noticing the Wurmple. He then looked between the wild Pokémon and his trainer for a few seconds before finally getting the point.

"Muuudkip," he nodded in affirmation.

The wild Wurmple ran at Mudkip, tackling it, and Mudkip enthusiastically tackled back. The Wurmple staggered a little before jumping back towards Mudkip and jabbing it with the horn on its head. Mudkip fell backwards, clearly upset.

"Kip!" He squealed, screwing his eyes shut. Gupta frowned. Mudkip really seemed to be hurting…

As he stepped up towards Mudkip with the view to picking him up and running as fast as he could out of there, Mudkip took a defiant leap towards the Wurmple and slammed into it full force. Wurmple jumped back and appeared to be getting ready to ram Mudkip with its horn again when Mudkip stopped, looked at the ground beneath him and began digging. As Wurmple charged at him, Mudkip gripped some of the dirt he'd dug with his front paws and slapped Wurmple with it. Discouraged, the Wurmple ran off.

"Mud slap… He literally slapped it… With mud?" Gupta queried out loud, a little confused as to what exactly just happened. The people who came up with these names sure were inventive. His attention was quickly drawn back towards Mudkip, who quickly ran back to him after the Wurmple ran off and nuzzled into his legs, his face telling the teen that he was still suffering. Gritting his teeth, Gupta picked up the small Pokémon and walked as fast as he could towards Oldale town. He'd tried to run, but somehow… He couldn't.

He was lucky not to be far from the town at all. When Gupta arrived, he was met by a strange man who seemed all too friendly.

"Are you a beginning trainer? I've never seen you before! All trainers need potions," he grinned cheerfully, shoving some sort of bottle into his hand.

"Er… Thanks?" Gupta was more than a little confused. What exactly was a potion? He had heard the word used to describe a lot of different things.

"You're welcome! Although the Pokémon Centre is just there, so it's probably more convenient to take your little guy there and save it for later," the man continued, completely unperturbed.

"Um… Okay. Thanks." Gupta waved awkwardly at the man (which was very hard with a Mudkip in his arms), before walking swiftly towards the Pokémon Centre. The building was easily the largest in town, with a huge red roof and clear signage, so it wasn't like it was hard to miss.

"Welcome to the Pokémon Centre! We restore your Pokémon to full health. Would you like to rest your Pokémon?" The woman behind the desk spouted without pause as soon as he walked up to her.

"Rest? I think Mudkip might need more than rest," Gupta stated, deadpan.

"It does look poisoned." The woman admitted. "We can fix that. Just pass it over."

Gupta stopped in his tracks, not trusting the woman one bit. "How do I know you won't steal him?" He asked. It was a little silly; he could see almost the entire Centre from where he was standing, except for a small intensive care area at the very back. Where would the woman go with Mudkip even if she did take him?"

"I appreciate your concern… Not all trainers are so wary and slow to trust. But I'm a criminal record checked nurse, so it's fine," the nurse reassured.

"Okay…" Gupta handed Mudkip to the lady.

"And the Pokeball," she continued. Gupta stared at her a little, but handed it to her anyway. She returned Mudkip to the ball.

"Okay, let me take your Pokémon for a few seconds," she stated, placing the Pokeball in some sort of machine and starting it. Gupta wasn't sure how such a thing could have healing properties. If Mudkip could talk, he would have asked him about it.

"Okay, all done! Your Pokémon has been healed," the woman stated with a smile, handing the Pokeball back to Gupta.

"Thanks," the teen nodded.

"Please come again," the nurse replied in parting.

As he turned away from the desk to walk from the building, Gupta noticed a pile of forms on a table next to one of the walls. 'Pokémon League registration' was written on a sign next to them, that had been folded to stand up and was clearly visible. Not really caring about that sort of thing, Gupta walked calmly from the area.

Once out of the Pokémon Centre, Gupta began to look around for the road that would lead to route 103. To start off with he walked towards the centre of town, where he found a helpful signpost that pointed him in the right direction. This place was far easier to navigate than Littleroot in that respect. As he walked along the correct road, he caught sight of another building. This one was smaller than the Pokémon Centre, being about the size of a house in all, and had a blue roof. Curious, the teen stepped inside the building to look around. He found that it was some sort of shop. Various people were browsing the shelves, looking at an array of items that Gupta couldn't identify. At the counter, someone was arguing with the clerk. Gupta listened in.

"What do you mean you don't have any Pokeball for sale? This is meant to be a Pokemart!" The trainer yelled at the salesman, who looked rather sheepish.

"The delivery truck got delayed… It's not like any of us planned this," he answered back calmly. "I'm sorry for the inconvenience, but for the moment any of you trainers who wanted to catch Pokémon are out of luck."

Gupta walked over to one of the shelves while digesting the information. So shops like these were where you got Pokeball… And other things too. He still couldn't tell what many things were, but among the items for sale Gupta spotted various food and treat items for Pokémon, potions that looked like the one he had been given earlier, toys, and even what appeared to be… Some sort of harness. The shop did seem to have things which could be useful later, so Gupta made sure to make a mental note of it before he left. The conversation between the clerk and the trainer inside the Pokemart had been interesting in a way, showing just how reliant on Pokeball some trainers seemed to be. Were they really catching that many Pokémon? Gupta didn't really care whether the shop was out of Pokeball or not. He wasn't bothered about catching Pokémon anyway.

The mid-afternoon sun beat down on Gupta as he made his way along the road he still followed. By now he was definitely on route 103, and he was hoping to run into Sadik soon. He hadn't sent Mudkip back out of the Pokeball since he had been returned to it in the Pokémon Centre. For the most part, this was because he had had no reason to; he hadn't come across any more wild Pokémon, and this was something he was glad of. He had even made it through another patch of tall grass ten minutes ago with no problems. Soon he turned a corner and reached a grassy plain with a river ahead of him. There didn't seem to be anywhere else to go. As Gupta surveyed the area, he saw a figure standing away from him, looking down into the water. As he drew closer to the other boy, Sadik turned around to face him.


	4. Battle: VS Pokémon Trainer Sadik

"Heya Guppie! How are ya?" Sadik smiled over at Gupta as soon as they were face to face.

"I'm fine," Gupta replied, wanting to keep it short. "I was told to come here and battle you."

"Ah, don't act so serious about it! This is just meant to be a bit of fun, so lighten up, will ya?" Sadik laughed a little at Gupta's uptight words and deadpan expression.

"You see Pokémon as just… Fun?" Gupta queried, unable to work out Sadik's reasoning.

"Nah, not just fun… Ya make it sound like they're just playthings. Adventuring is fun. Pokémon are friends. Either way, yer too serious about this." The other teen clarified.

"Oh. Well, anyway…" Gupta continued, pulling Mudkip's Pokeball out of his pocket. "We should get down to it."

"Sure." Sadik flashed an accommodating grin as he reached into his own pocket, pulling out a Pokeball of his own.

Gupta took a deep breath to prepare himself for the fight before throwing the Pokeball at the grass in front of him.

"Mud?" Mudkip queried, a little confused as to where he was.

"We're battling again Mudkip," Gupta offered by way of explanation.

"Kip?" Mudkip looked around, trying to figure out where the other Pokémon was.

"Heh, I like that little guy, he's cute," Sadik commented, releasing his own Pokémon.

"Come out Ateş, we're gonna battle now!" He declared.

"Tor-Chic!" Sang Ateş, shaking his head from side to side a little. The action caused his head plume to swing around.

Mudkip heard the voice of another Pokémon and turned to face Ateş.

"Kip!" He seemed to reply, focusing on his target.

"Alright Ateş, scratch 'em!" Sadik called, and his Pokémon began charging towards Mudkip.

"Tackle," Gupta replied, causing Mudkip to run forwards with all his might… Straight into an upraised claw.

"Muuud," Mudkip whined, shaking his whole body in discomfort. Ateş was sent rolling backwards from Mudkip's attack, but soon picked himself up again.

"Tor!" He smiled, jumping in the air a little, appearing as though he was having fun.

"Mudkip, tackle him again," Gupta continued, trying to press the fight on.

"Scratch again," Sadik reiterated to his own Pokémon at about the same time.

Some confusion arose as Mudkip appeared to stop for a moment, unsure as to how to decipher the conflicting statements. Eventually, he began running back towards Ateş… Only to begin trying to scratch the Pokémon with his front paws. He earned another claw to the face for his trouble.

"No Mudkip, you can't use scratch." Gupta sighed, wondering how Mudkip could be so easily confused. He clearly wasn't Sadik! Didn't Mudkip know not to follow the orders of other trainers? As he looked back towards his Pokémon, Gupta noted that Mudkip seemed to be in pain. His body was now riddled with scratches.

Sadik chucked a little, and his Torchic followed suit. "Okay Ateş, let's wrap this up. Use scratch one more time."

Gupta gritted his teeth as Ateş began advancing on Mudkip again. He couldn't lose… Then he remembered what his mother had said. "Mudkip… Use mud slap," he commanded. Mudkip nodded, smiling goofily, and began digging again. Some of the mud kicked up by the digging hit Ateş square in the face. The Torchic panicked a little as he tried to wipe the mud from his eyes with his wings, to little effect.

"Stay calm Ateş!" Sadik assured, as Mudkip continued digging down, coating his paws in the mud of the hole he was digging.

"Mudkip!" He squealed as he leapt from the hole, slapping Ateş around the face with the mud a few times.

"Chic!" Ateş cried, falling back.

"Keep going," Gupta encouraged, as Mudkip continued to slap the Torchic, Ateş stumbling a little before falling flat on his face.

"Mud?" Mudkip stood over Ateş, who seemed to have collapsed. He poked the fainted Pokémon before jumping to signal his victory. "Mudkip!" He cheered, smiling.

"That was good work," Gupta nodded. "Now come back to… Mudkip?" He noticed Mudkip now moving towards Sadik. The teen looked just as perplexed.

"Hey there little guy, what're ya up to…Bleh!" Sadik staggered backwards a little as Mudkip flung some mud off of his paws and into Sadik's face.

"Mudkip... The battle is over. We don't need to fight Sadik as well." Gupta sighed. Clearly, this Pokémon did not understand trainer battles. Sadik was still being covered in mud. Gupta hoped he wasn't too upset. He actually didn't mind Sadik, out of all the people he had met so far.

Mudkip looked over to Gupta and smiled lazily.

"Mudkip!" The dopey Pokémon celebrated as Torchic laid face down on the ground, too exhausted to get up. Sadik scraped the mud off of his face before looking over to Gupta and smiling.

"Sorry Sadik," Gupta apologised, sighing a little at Mudkip's actions.

"It's no problem, really! Little guy just got carried away, that's all..." Sadik grinned, picking his Torchic up off the ground and holding it in his arms. "That was good Guppie, yer pretty skilled for a beginning trainer, although I bet I won't lose the next time."

"Thanks, but didn't Mudkip do most of the work?" Gupta questioned, walking over to where Mudkip was jumping up and down and scooping the Pokémon up.

"Well, I guess so… he's an enthusiastic little guy, huh?" Sadik continued regardless, still smiling. "Anyway, how 'bout we walk back to my cousin's lab together? My Pokémon's all tuckered out, so I'm not so sure about goin' in the tall grass, and besides, it's more fun that way."

"Do you consider your life with Pokémon to be about fun?" Gupta asked, walking to where Sadik was as Mudkip began staring at some Taillow up in a tree.

"Of course! Me and Ateş both," Sadik confidently declared.

"Tor…Chic!" Ateş confirmed weakly from where he was cradled in Sadik's arms.

"Well, you do make sense at least," Gupta admitted. "Alright then," he agreed, as he began walking back towards Oldale town, Sadik grinning and following him.

When the two teens arrived in Oldale town, Sadik handed Ateş to the lady in the Pokémon centre while Gupta took the opportunity to look around a bit more. Mudkip seemed as curious as he was, admiring the ceiling with a cheerful smile on his face.

The walls of the Pokémon centre were neutrally coloured, while the floor seemed to be made of faux tile linoleum. In the middle was the healing station complete with the lady from before, her machine and the intensive care area, all of which took up a large portion of the space. To the left of that there was an area with tables, couches and a TV that seemed to be switched off at the front of the centre and a changing area with cubicles towards the back. In the middle of the left hand side there was an escalator going up to another floor. To the right of the healing station there was a bookcase, some stools and tables, and a high counter pushed against a wall in the front, an escalator going downwards in the middle and a bank of multiple videophones that Gupta reasoned likely worked via satellite in the back. There were strange devices next to these machines. Wondering what they were, Gupta walked up to one of the phones, switching it on only to find himself face to face with a menu. Pokémon Storage (Someone's PC), Item Storage (Gupta's PC), Check Pokedex (Professor's PC), and Video Call were the 4 options on the screen. Gupta was a little alarmed that it was that easy to just log into his home computer. What if someone else managed to get in? He also had no idea what a Pokedex was.

"Somethin' interestin' over there Guppie?" Sadik asked from his place at the healing station.

"The computers here are strange…" Gupta replied, heading back to Sadik.

"Are they? I never noticed. Guess it's all the techy stuff they run off of. I met a guy once who knew all about that sort of thing. All we need to know is how convenient it is," he stated.

"How is this sort of thing convenient?" Gupta pondered out loud.

"Well, ya can store stuff ya don't need in the PC… Pokémon, items, mail… And then come back for it later. And ya can always get in touch with people when you need to," the taller teen explained.

"I see…" It still made little sense to Gupta, but he decided to let it drop.

"Anyway, have ya registered yerself as a trainer yet?" Sadik queried, looking over towards one of the tables on the left side of the centre which still contained the registration forms from before. "Ya just write yer details on those forms and scan it into one of the computers, and you get a trainer card printed, and ya can enter the League too."

"I don't really have plans to travel too much," Gupta admitted. "I was hoping for this to just be one journey I went on to get used to the area."

"Really? Ya sure?" Sadik responded, clearly not convinced. "Ya don't have to worry about school or anything, ya know. We can always come back to it."

"We? You mean you're going to go?" Gupta answered, catching onto Sadik's use of words.

"'Course I am! Just as soon as I sort things out back home, I'm outta here," Sadik smiled again. "I've always wanted to see what was out there. Go on an adventure… Ya should come with us Guppie. It'd be fun, and I could use a good rival like ya to keep me on my toes. Besides, ya little Mudkip there really likes ya. I bet he'd be up for the adventurin' too."

"I'll think about it," Gupta responded noncommittally. He really wasn't sure about this… After all, this little excursion was already enough adventure in his opinion.

"So, where're ya from? Since ya just moved here and all…" Sadik questioned as he walked back down route 101 towards Littleroot with Gupta. Ateş was perched on the teen's head, seemingly playing with the human's hair with his beak, while Mudkip still lolled about in Gupta's arms, now staring at some Hoppip drifting in the evening breeze. He still wore the same dopey grin.

"I come from Goldenrod City," Gupta stated, looking forwards. "The Pokémon there are completely different to the ones here. Most of them I recognise from reading I did before I arrived. Some I don't," he added, making conversation.  
"Really? Ya come from somewhere so huge?" Sadik sounded awed in his reply. "I bet this takes some getting used to, huh?" he motioned to the greenery around them.

"It's not like I wasn't expecting it," Gupta shrugged in response.

"Huh. Still, must be strange. I guess livin' in a place like that, ya had no need to get so up close and personal with Pokémon if ya didn't want to," the other teen assumed.

"Not all that much, other than my mother's Pokémon," Gupta confirmed.  
"I've lived here all my life. So I'm used to seein' all the Pokémon around here," Sadik told his newfound friend. "I guess it's partly why I want to see the rest of the region at least. It gets boring here."

"This isn't what I'm used to," Gupta admitted, "but it is nice, in its own way."

"Yeah…" Sadik trailed off as he looked towards the houses in the distance. "Well, we're nearly back to the lab… Should be my last night in this town, if that."

Gupta stated at Sadik, wondering how he had managed to build such a rapport with the teen so quickly. Already they seemed to be talking fairly easily… He put it down to Sadik being so friendly all the time. As he looked down to Mudkip in his arms, he was left to ponder what it was he really wanted to do.

When Sadik and Gupta walked into the Pokémon lab together, it was almost dark, and the professor seemed to be preparing to go home for the day. Gupta waited close to the door, not wanting to intrude on anything scientific that might be going on, but Sadik walked straight in and straight up to Batsaikhan.

"Hey 'cuz! That was a great battle me and Guppie had earlier, ya should have seen it!" He confidently stated, slapping the professor on the back.

"I'm sure it must have been… However, I was busy at the time conducting experiments on the optimum food for Pokémon kept on farms, so I couldn't leave the lab," the professor sighed.

"Yeah, well, Guppie really did well out there. Beat me fair and square and all." Sadik continued. "Which is why I feel he should really become a proper trainer and travel around and beat gyms and everythin'."

"Ah, of course, yes, it would be of help to me too," Batsaikhan remembered. "You see, we need to do a census on the distributions of Pokémon… And for that, we need some young, mobile people such as yourselves to travel around the region with Pokedexes like these…" The professor motioned to some devices on a table in the middle of the lab, "to discover where exactly the Pokémon all are. They do record automatically, but it's not good scientific practice to send just one person out alone, however many devices you give them… I'd far prefer it if the both of you would take part in this," he rambled.

"Okay, cuz, I get it, I'll help with yer survey," Sadik confirmed. "What about you Guppie? Would ya like a taste of adventure?"

Gupta looked between the two cousins, unable to fathom how he got himself into this situation. Trying to find some guidance, he looked down at Mudkip. The creature looked back up at him with brainless enthusiasm, and barked happily.

"Mudkip!"

Gupta sighed. That response could literally mean anything.

"Alright," he finally decided, perhaps a little reluctantly.

"Cool, I guess this makes us rivals or somethin'." Sadik chuckled a little, Ateş trying to mimic but actually just chirping cutely. "So I'll see you on the road then… Or the battlefield."

"Hopefully the two of you won't battle too hard… I'd hate for Pokémon to get hurt… Or the two of you." Batsaikhan looked Sadik up and down. He hadn't missed the mud. "Some Pokémon have far more dangerous things in their arsenals than dirt. Anyway, I'll give one of these devices to each of you." The professor brought out two Pokedexes, handing one to Sadik, before taking the walk down the lab to hand the other to Gupta, who was still standing close to the door. "And while you're at it, you can have some Pokeballs too… In case you find something out there you want to keep," he added, delving into his lab coat pocket and bringing out 10 Pokeballs. He gave 5 to Gupta before walking back to Sadik and giving him the other 5.

"Awesome," Sadik grinned. Gupta shoved the Pokeballs into the pocket Mudkip's Pokeball wasn't in, hoping he didn't get the two mixed up in the future. He was still holding the Pokedex. That didn't fit in a pocket at all. Couldn't they have made the devices smaller?  
"Well, I suppose all that's left to say is good luck to you both. You can reach me by video link anytime you want, as long as I'm not on fieldwork." The professor finalised.

"Right," Sadik stated. "Time to get this adventure started!" He walked back to the door before walking past Gupta to the outside. "See ya later Guppie!" He waved as he took off running up the road.

"But it's almost dark…" Gupta stared after him. Would he really get that far before nightfall?

Gupta must have looked quite a sight when he returned home that evening, with his pockets stuffed full of Pokeballs and a Mudkip balanced on top of the Pokedex he had been given, both things held awkwardly in his arms.

"The professor does seem to love giving you things," his mother commented, moving forwards to pick up Mudkip.  
"I didn't ask for this." Gupta shook his head.

"But are you going to go along with it anyway? Because that's what really matters," she stated, lifting Mudkip into her own arms. The Pokémon snuggled into her.

"What's the harm in a little travelling?" Gupta answered back.

"Good choice," his mother smiled, before looking towards Mudkip. "All the food I have is far more suited to ground types… Which this one won't be unless he evolves… But for now, it should do," she assessed, placing Mudkip back on the ground. He immediately ran back to Gupta. "As for your abundance of items, I have an old rucksack upstairs that should be able to carry all that and more. You can borrow it for your trip."

"Thanks mama," Gupta acknowledged, "I'll be back from travelling before too long."

"Take your time out there," she shot back. "It'd be better for you to see some of the world while you're still young." She smiled. "I'm glad you decided to do this. I'm hopeful you'll be quite the trainer someday."

Gupta just nodded, heading towards the stairs with a view to packing his things up, while his mother began to work on dinner. Mudkip appeared perplexed by the stairs, attempting to jump from step to step after Gupta with a pout on his face, finding the journey difficult. The only way for the small Pokémon to navigate the stairs was to lean his front paws on the stair above and then pull himself up. This took so long that by the time he had reached the next floor, Gupta was already in his room, and Mudkip had to run to keep up with his trainer.

By the time Mudkip had joined him, Gupta had found the bag in question and was back in his room. Or at least, what he assumed had to be the bag in question. It seemed unnaturally small for something that was meant to be able to hold everything he needed, appearing no larger than the average school backpack. Deciding to test it, the teen began by stuffing a sleeping bag and his Pokedex into the bag. Both items fit into the rucksack easily, so Gupta took the bag and ventured downstairs to find matches and a few basic cooking utensils. He was able to fit these things into the bag as well. Mudkip had spaced out while Gupta was shoving the first few things into his bag, so continued to sit on the floor for a few moments before running back towards the stairs. Confused as to how exactly a small bag could hold all of those things and still appear to have room left in it, Gupta walked back upstairs, almost tripping over Mudkip along the way, to his room where he also placed his spare Pokeballs, his notebook and a pen into the bag. Once this was done, the teenager tested the weight of the bag and still found it light and easy to carry. Definitely completely lost by this point, he shook his head in disbelief.

"What kind of bag is this even?" He asked out loud. Mudkip stared at the bag in question intently, seemingly looking for answers.

After Gupta and Mudkip had both been fed (the latter thankfully taking to the taste of the ground Pokémon food without too much fuss), Gupta finished packing the last of the supplies he would need for an extended journey (food for himself and some for his Pokémon), as Mudkip watched him, smiling.

'What a strange day,' he thought to himself. Only hours ago, he had been moving into this house, intending to stay for the foreseeable future. Now, he was setting out on a journey that would take him a long way away, without even having time to get used to his new hometown. Shaking his head at the pace of events, the teen moved to put the rucksack down by the door, getting ready for bed as he did so. As the human went about preparing for sleep, Mudkip followed him back and forth, getting confused as an errant sock hit him in the face in the process. The Pokémon stopped for a moment to investigate the strange article, but upon realising it could not be eaten, he soon decided Gupta was more interesting. When his trainer got into bed ready to go to sleep, Mudkip tried to follow, jumping at the mattress repeatedly. When several attempts saw him slide back down to the floor, he whined in annoyance. Gupta, irritated by the noise, picked Mudkip up and placed him on the empty side of the bed before rolling over and going to sleep. Mudkip tried to sniff Gupta and poked him a few times; but when it was clear his trainer wasn't in the mood to talk, he instead investigated the duvet beneath him, getting comfortable on the bed before drifting off to sleep, curled up beside the teen.


	5. A Taste of Madness

There are new characters this chapter! The female team Aqua Grunt is Kenya, and the male team Magma Grunt is Cameroon. They will return in later chapters (and their Pokemon as well).

* * *

Fairly early the next morning, Mudkip awoke and crawled over to Gupta, poking his trainer a few times, wanting the teen to get up and play with him. When Gupta still refused to budge, the Pokémon jumped onto his legs, beginning to leap up and down until the sleepy teenager finally picked up the Mudkip to make him stop, sitting up slightly as he reached up to grab the dopey thing.

"Mudkip!" Mudkip cheered at seeing Gupta awake, seemingly not finding a single problem with his actions. Gupta sighed, looking over to the clock, to find it was 6AM. Great.

"Are you going to wake me up this early every morning from now on?" He asked, not really expecting much of a response.

"Kip?" Mudkip questioned, turning his head to the side in confusion.

"Never mind," the human answered, annoyed still at being woken up and at how hard it was to get through to his spacey companion.

"Mud…" Mudkip frowned at Gupta's apparent bad mood, trying to nuzzle into Gupta's hands where he was being held.

"…Let's just get up." The human decided, getting out of bed and putting Mudkip down on the ground before making the bed silently while Mudkip watched mindlessly. When he was finished, the trainer moved to get dressed, while Mudkip stayed in the same spot, his eyes fixed on the bed. He seemed to have spaced out again. Gupta noticed this once he had changed into his clothes for the day- green cargo trousers and a buttoned green shirt- and moved back towards his Pokémon, poking him gently until he responded with a bark.

"You're the one who didn't want to sleep," he argued, smiling a little.

Gupta had packed up his nightwear and sorted out some clothes to take with him by the time his mother had woken up. Smelling food being cooked downstairs, he and Mudkip began to walk towards the kitchen, Gupta fiddling with his earring along the way and Mudkip staring at the walls.

"Are the two of you ready to go yet?" She asked as soon as she caught sight of her son.

"More or less I suppose," Gupta replied.

"That's good. We'll leave as soon as possible then," she added, plating up some breakfast for her and the teenager before getting out some food for Mudkip.

"Okay," Gupta agreed, moving the plates to the table while Mudkip sniffed the air before walking over to where Cleo was feeding him.

"It's an interesting new start," she stated, coming back to the table and sitting down with Gupta. He nodded as they began to eat. Silence reigned for most of the rest of the meal, punctuated only with Mudkip chortling a little.

Once breakfast was finished and the last few things packed away, Gupta shouldered his bag and headed downstairs with Mudkip, ready to leave. He found his mother there, wearing the same dress as yesterday, but this time with a set of bracelets adorning her arms and a necklace that shone in the sun coming through the nearby window. She was wearing feathered, hanging earrings and in the light she looked positively regal.

"Ready?" She checked, moving towards the door.

"Ready." He confirmed, pulling Mudkip up into his arms as he prepared to head out on his journey.

Once they had gotten out of the door, Gupta's mother locked up the house and began walking with him towards Oldale town. She had work to get to after all. She kept a fast pace the teenager found it difficult to keep up with. He was still finding it difficult to run. Mudkip also seemed to notice the quicker travel, whining occasionally as he lost sight of whatever it was he kept staring at in the haste of the humans.

"I can walk with you as far as Petalburg City," she informed as they kept walking, over halfway to Oldale town despite no more than ten minutes having passed. "But from then on, I have to stay with the gym. You meanwhile, should head through the Petalburg Woods and towards Rustboro City. The Gym Leader there also teaches at the local trainer school, so she's used to dealing with new trainers." She looked up, remembering as much as she could about the girl Gupta was to face. "She… Can be a little frosty from what I remember reading. And she hardly ever smiles. But everyone who really knows her swears there's a heart of gold in there somewhere."

"Really…" Gupta mused. He supposed his mother probably knew best. She'd done a lot of research on the area before moving, after all, and her position as Gym Leader meant she read up a lot on the official trainers in the Pokémon League, including Gym Leaders and the Elite Four. He still wasn't so sure about battling gyms though.

"I know I'm travelling around… But do I have to battle the Gym Leaders?" He asked.

"Well, why wouldn't you? Filling the Pokedex is the main aim of your travels, obviously, but it doesn't hurt to test your strength while you're at it. And to get to some places where certain Pokémon live, you'll need to use Hidden Moves. Those require you to have a certain number of Gym Badges you know. So it's for the best." His mother answered effortlessly.

"Well, alright then." The teen nodded. She was right, it wouldn't hurt…

When they got to Oldale town no more than fifteen minutes later, Gupta's mother marched him straight towards the Pokémon Centre to apply for entry to the League. While he tried to fill out the necessary paperwork (which wasn't easy with a Mudkip still in his arms), his mother was pulled into conversation with passing trainers… And the nurse from yesterday.

"I know I've seen you somewhere before…" The nurse pondered, thinking.

"Aren't you the new Gym Leader in Petalburg or something?" Asked a female trainer sitting on one of the stools.

"Yes." Cleo confirmed.

"Ohh, right, that was it," the nurse agreed. "Cleopatra Hassan, new Gym Leader of Petalburg City. It's nice to meet you." She smiled warmly.

"Wow, an actual Gym Leader just walking around… I suppose you're on the way to the gym right now?" The trainer idolised.

"That's right." Cleo replied aloofly.

"You don't have any Pokémon with you right now though… So what are you in the Pokémon Centre for?" The nurse queried. "Not that I think you're a nuisance or anything." She quickly added, not wanting to appear rude.

By this point, Gupta had finished writing in the information on the forms, and had gone over to one of the computers to print a Trainer Card, making sure to avoid the conversation in the middle of the room.

"…Just waiting for my son." Cleo shrugged, not really finding it that big of a deal.

"No way! You have a child who's a trainer too?" The other trainer jumped up, seemingly excited. "I have to battle him! Where is he anyway?"

Gupta heard the commotion and sighed. What was that girl's deal anyway? He noticed the machine was done printing his trainer card, so he pocketed it and walked back over to his mother, figuring he'd rather get this over with.

"Ah, Gupta. You're finished?" She smiled as soon as he got close, alerting everyone else to his presence and to exactly who he was. Suddenly, trainers all around the centre who had just been sitting down before got up and walked over, trying to get a look at him and his mother.

"Really? He's the son of a Gym Leader?" One trainer asked his friend quizzically.

"He doesn't exactly look the part, does he? Especially not with just a starter Pokémon like that." She shot back.

"Aww, he's really cute!" Ogled the trainer from before.

"Oh, you're the kid from yesterday! I totally see the family resemblance now that you mention it," the nurse butted in, still smiling. "Wow, it's not every day you get the family of a Gym Leader in here!"

"…Can we go?" Gupta asked, looking up at Cleo pleadingly. She nodded.

"We're in a little of a rush, so we'll be leaving now," she voiced, parting the crowd to get herself and Gupta out of the situation.

Outside, Gupta felt like he could finally breathe. He didn't like large groups of people. Just when he thought he was safe, a hand clapped him on the back and he jumped a foot in the air, expecting more pestering.

"Heh… I saw the commotion you two made in there… I had no idea ya were a Gym Leader's kid Guppie. No wonder yer so strong for a beginner." Sadik chucked easily, Ateş joining in from where he was sitting on his trainer's shoulder.

"Sadik." Gupta acknowledged, still not sure about the nickname, "What are you doing here? I thought you left yesterday."

"Yeah well… It got dark really quick, and I realised I'd forgot to bring supplies in my haste." Sadik sighed a little. "So, after returning and getting chewed out by cuz, I prepared properly, and left again dawn this morning. I was just chillin' in the Centre over there when the two of yer walked in."

"Right." Gupta found himself smiling a little. Sadik sure could be eccentric.

"I don't think we've met before…?" Cleo cut in curiously.

"Oh, right, I guess not." The cocky teen appeared to straighten up a little if anything. "Well, my name's Sadik. Prof. Batsaikhan's my cousin, so I'm helpin' with the dex project too. And I've already met Guppie a lot of times along the line so far. It's good to know I've got such a rival to spar with." His usual grin returned towards the end of his sentence.

"And your Torchic? He is your starter Pokémon?" She assumed.

"Ateş," Sadik corrected, "But yeah."

"I see." She smiled. "It's nice to meet you Sadik. I'm glad Gupta's making friends so quickly."

"Heh, likewise." Sadik grinned.

Gupta sighed. Did he not get a say in any of this? He wasn't sure he quite considered Sadik a friend yet.

"So, the two of you heading to Petalburg?" Sadik guessed.

"Of course. I don't have my Pokémon with me since I had them sent straight to the Gym when we moved in. So Gupta's escorting me there." Cleo confirmed.

"Cool. Mind if I tag along? We're all heading the same way after all," Sadik requested.

"I see no reason why not." Cleo shrugged.

"Great! So, guess we can help each other out for a little, eh?" Sadik assumed, turning to Gupta.

Before he had a chance to reply, the group heard a scream coming from the middle of town. Cleo instantly took off in the direction of the noise, and Sadik followed, seemingly trying to play the hero. Gupta thought such an idea was stupid, but he couldn't leave his mother in danger, and so he walked as quickly as he could over to where the commotion was.

Towards the middle of Oldale town stood some old ruins of a sort. Legend once stated that there was a connection between the ruins and Pokémon that had lived since ancient times. Gupta, while he had an appreciation for old cultures, had been in a hurry the last time he had passed through the town, and so hadn't stopped to even acknowledge the ruins. Now, two figures stood before the old monuments, each chipping a different mural away from the stone walls.

"Hey!" Cried a townswoman. "What are you doing? That's Ancient History you're destroying!"

The figures didn't even look up from their work, not caring for the civilian outrage.

"Stop." Cleo seethed. "Now."

Her voice sounded terrifying in its intensity, causing the figures to look momentarily at her. When they realised who she was, they turned to face her.

Both members of the duo had dark brown skin and eyes and medium brown hair, but there the similarities ended. The female was wearing a blue and white striped sleeveless crop top that went from her neck to just above her navel, blue bands around her upper arms and black gloves on her hands, and cut off brown shorts with the same blue and white stripy tights, going down to black boots with a blue design laid over them. Her long hair had been pulled up into a high ponytail, and a black bandanna with a white symbol of some sort on it had been wrapped over the top.

The male was tall and looked strongly-built, and had some sort of red bodysuit that covered him for the most part, with three-quarter length red trousers and a red hoodie with a black 'M' on the front and two black horns on the hood over the top. He wore red gloves over his hands and red boots on his feet. There appeared to be a circle cut out of the boots, through which the bodysuit showed. Under the hood, the man's eyes were hard behind the glasses that covered them, and a glimpse of his buzzcut hair could be seen. Gupta wasn't sure whether he wanted to mess with either figure.

"You have something you want to say?" The male asked, looking Cleo up and down, and looking a little more confident when he noticed the lack of Pokeballs or pockets to hide them in.

"…Leave. Now." Cleo repeated, still trying to intimidate the two.

"You and whose army?" The female asked, turning slightly to start chipping away at the wall again.

"Our army!" Sadik stepped in, face fierce. "Chic!" Ateş chirped in affirmation.

"Confident, kid. Think you can stop me?" The male stepped forwards, taking two Pokeballs from his pockets. The female turned fully and continued chipping away at the mural on the wall.

"Aren't ya gonna help him at all?" Sadik asked, confused.

"Why? He's no friend of mine. Did you honestly think we were working together?" She shot back, returning to her work. Sadik gritted his teeth, but the male with the Pokémon was currently a bigger problem. He needed to get past him before he could stop the female.

"Alright, yeah, I'll stop ya." He replied confidently.

"Try if you dare." The male brushed off Sadik's claims nonchalantly, tossing both Pokeballs at the ground.

"Shinx!" Cried one of the Pokémon emerging.

"Leo!" called the Litleo springing from the other ball.

Mudkip struggled from Gupta's arms, landing on the ground and dashing forwards to face the Pokémon. Ateş jumped from Sadik's shoulder to do the same.

"Kokolo, Work Up!" The male commanded. The Litleo seemed to begin growling to itself, getting itself into a kind of rage.

"It's building power," Cleo advised. "You don't want it to get too strong."

"Right. Mudkip, Mud Slap," Gupta told his Pokémon.

"Leo, Tackle," the man shouted just afterwards.

This time, Mudkip looked backwards and forwards between the various Pokémon and trainers. He had never seen four Pokémon in a battle before. Confused, and somehow getting the idea he was to fight them all, he charged towards Ateş.

"Wrong way Mudkip!" Gupta yelled, too late to prevent Mudkip being slammed into by Leo. He fell back against the ground.

"Ateş, Ember on that Shinx!" Sadik instructed, causing Ateş to leap in and breathe small spits of flame at Leo, making the Shinx leap back and cry out. "Ya have to make clear which Pokémon yer want yer little guy to hit." He added to Gupta.

"Okay then… Mudkip, Mud Slap the Shinx," he specified, hoping that Mudkip got it right this time. Luckily for Gupta, the Pokémon finally understood what it was being told to do, digging at the ground to cover its paws with mud before running over to Leo and slapping it.

"Shi…" Leo whined, falling backwards against the ground before standing slowly.

"Kokolo, Tackle that Mudkip. Leo, Tackle the Torchic," the mysterious man ordered. Kokolo charged and tackled Mudkip, who attempted to slap the Litleo with his mud-coated paws in response, but caused little damage and was sent flying. Leo slammed into Ateş.

"Ateş, use Scratch now!" Sadik yelled, and Ateş flung a claw into the face of the attacking Shinx. Leo staggered back as Mudkip slammed back into the ground, clearly hurting.

"Mudkip…" Gupta grimaced. His Pokémon did not look good… "Mud Slap the Litleo."

Mudkip looked towards Gupta and nodded, freshly coating his paws in mud before leaping back over to Kokolo and slapping it around the face.

"Li." Kokolo growled, sliding backwards a few feet.

"Leo, use Tackle on the Torchic again," the man reiterated.  
"Dodge and then use Ember on that Shinx Ateş!" Sadik guided. Ateş managed to hurl himself out of the way just in time to avoid being hit, and retaliated with more flickers of flame. These collided fully with Leo, who staggered backwards before collapsing onto his front, exhausted. The man cursed quietly to himself.

"Kokolo, Tackle the Torchic." He commanded. Kokolo raced forwards to get revenge, slamming Ateş hard.

"Chic…" Ateş complained, appearing hurt.

"Mudkip, Mud Slap the Litleo again," Gupta repeated. Mudkip jumped after Kokolo and slapped a paw into the Litleo's torso. Kokolo appeared a little discouraged, but it didn't fall down.

"Kokolo, finish off Torchic." The shady man decided. The Litleo tackled Ateş with full force, pushing him back into part of the ruins. Both murals were already weakened from the chipping away of the two strange people and so cracked and fell from the wall. Ateş lay slumped at the ruins' base, unmoving.

"Hmm. Not bad." The woman commented, bending down to pick up the mural fragment she'd been chipping away at the whole time. "Guess you do have your uses. Just don't you dare try to get in our way in future." She glared at the hooded man as she spoke, before grabbing the fragment and running from the scene.

"Hey!" Gupta called after her, trying to step away from the scene to chase her down.

"There's no running from a trainer battle Gupta," his mother chipped in. "You need to finish this."

"Ateş…" Sadik called, trying to rouse his Pokémon.

"You kids shouldn't play with fire." The man jeered. "You just end up burned."

Gupta found himself feeling angry. Who did this man think he was? His eyes hardened in intensity until he looked as fierce as his mother. Mudkip picked up on this and tensed, ready to strike.

"Shut up," he hissed. "Mudkip, Mud Slap that damn Litleo."

"Kip." Mudkip nodded, digging again to coat his paws properly in the mud, looking determined. Kokolo looked back towards Mudkip questioningly, before the Pokémon leapt from the whole and punted the Litleo into the same wall as Ateş. It didn't get up.

"Mud…Kip…" Mudkip panted, hoping he had done well enough, and looking towards Gupta for support.

"Geh... How did I ever lose to a kid like you?" The man mused, returning his two fainted Pokémon to their Pokeballs as Sadik ran over to Ateş and gathered him into his arms. "No matter…" He continued, walking over to the fallen piece of mural and picking it up. "You still won't stop me." Before he'd even finished talking, he took off running.

"Wait!" Gupta yelled, trying to run after him… But again, he couldn't.

"It would really help if I could run…" He complained to himself.

"Hmm…" Cleo thought, as Mudkip walked towards Gupta, stopping a few centimetres from his feet and standing on his hind legs, whining softly in a request to be picked up. Gupta sighed and took the Pokémon into his arms.

"We'd better take our guys back to the Pokémon Centre," Sadik decided.

"Yeah," Gupta agreed, beginning to walk with the other trainer as Cleo remained behind, looking after them.

"Hmm…"

Gupta and Sadik were mobbed by other young trainers as soon as they got back to the Centre, and ended up having to wade through the crowds to get to the counter.

"Wow, you two sure seem to be the heroes of the town after standing up to those weirdoes," the nurse commented as they both handed their Pokémon over. She returned them to their Pokeballs and got to work.

"We didn't manage to stop them though," Gupta sighed.

"But you tried. You took action. That alone shows more courage than half of these people," she continued. "People admire stuff like that."

"Do you have any idea who those people were?" Sadik asked.

"I've never seen either of them before," she stated. "They just turned up out of the blue. Who knows why they did it?"

"They seem to have wanted to do something with them pictures on the ruins." Sadik theorised.

"But… What would they want with pictures?" Gupta wondered.

"Who knows?" Sadik shrugged.

"At least they're gone, right? Let's focus on that." The nurse urged, handing the two healed Pokémon back to their trainers, now safely stowed inside their Pokeballs.

As Sadik and Gupta walked away from the counter, the crowd gathered around them again, asking questions left right and centre.

"Weren't you both afraid to take on such an imposing guy?" One boy asked.

"Who do you think those people even were?" Asked another young trainer.

"Wow, you really are a Gym Leader's kid! You're tough as anything!" A young woman admired.

"Do you guys have girlfriends?" Somebody shouted from towards the back of the crowd.

"… No more questions." Gupta deadpanned, pushing his way through the crowd and exiting the centre, wanting to find his mother. On the other hand, Sadik remained behind for a few moments, giving some quick answers. No, they were more angry than afraid. No, he had no idea who those people were. No, he was pretty sure neither of them had… Wait.

"It's none of yer business anyway." He stated, raising an eyebrow.

Outside, Gupta had found his mother again. She was standing outside the Pokemart holding a bag of some sort.

"I was just thinking… Of some other things you would need." She offered by way of an explanation, handing Gupta the bag.

"Thanks." He nodded, opening it up. Inside was some water Pokémon food and a pair of trainers.

"…Shoes?" He asked, tilting his head.

"Running Shoes." She corrected. "You were complaining about walking everywhere."

"Okay." Gupta accepted, finding it a little weird. He put the food away in his bag before putting the shoes onto his feet, swapping them for his other shoes which he put into his bag along with the food.  
"Give them a try," his mother urged.

"Yeah, go on," Sadik commented as he approached the two from the direction of the Pokémon Centre.

Gupta nodded, backing up a few paces before starting to run… And managing the action with no effort.

"What?! How did this not work before?" Gupta fumed, frustration getting the better of him. "Ugh. Perfect. Just perfect."


	6. Journey's Beginning

Current Team: Gupta-Mudkip, level 9. Sadik-Torchic (Ates), level 11.

Gupta's confused at seeing pre-teens with Pokemon because he's 15-16 in this fic. It should be said that even in the original Ruby and Sapphire, the characters had the appearance of being about 13. I just wanted to make him a little older than that. He also isn't Japan, and doesn't have the same personal space issues despite being similarly introverted and quiet (almost cold) to people he doesn't know. This is a cultural difference rather than a personality thing.

* * *

The early afternoon sun beat down upon the group of Gupta, his mother, and Sadik as they headed out onto Route 102. For the first few minutes, they passed only trees and a small pond on their right hand side. Then tall grass began to sprout up either side of the path. In one such patch of grass stood a trainer. Sadik smiled at the sight.

"Seein' as ya don't seem to have the hang of trainer battles yet, I'll go first, eh? Show ya the ropes." Sadik suggested, walking towards the trainer. Gupta sighed. _He_ wasn't the one who needed the guidance…

"Walkin' direct in front of a trainer or making eye contact with 'em's kinda a code for meaning ya wanna battle." Sadik continued, walking up to the trainer in the grass and staring them down. Gupta nodded, filing the information away, also noticing that the trainers on the Route seemed deliberately stood so that people would have to pass by them to get ahead.

"I'm Calvin." The boy standing in front of Sadik stated. Gupta had to look at the kid twice. He couldn't be older than ten!  
"Hey, I'm Sadik." Said trainer greeted. "Let's have a good battle, Calvin."

"Heh." Calvin smiled. "Go Zigzagoon!" He shouted, sending out his Pokémon.  
"Let's go Ateş!" Sadik called, throwing his Pokeball into the space between the trainers.

"Chic!" Ateş roared, as the Zigzagoon tensed ready for battle.

"Zigzagoon, use Tackle!" The Youngster called.

"Ateş, Ember!" Sadik responded, and the Torchic breathed fire at the Zigzagoon just before it slammed into him.

"Zigzagoon, Tail Whip!" The trainer called, and the Pokémon nodded, taking a few steps back and wagging its tail playfully.

"Uhh…" Sadik raised an eyebrow. "Ateş, Ember again."

"Chic!" Ateş agreed, breathing fire at the Zigzagoon again. The Pokémon reared up and cried out before collapsing.

"Ah, nuts. You're really good." The trainer complimented. "Guess you deserve this then." He reached into his pocket, took out some coins and handed them to Sadik, who pocketed them with a nod of thanks. "Anyway, I have to go heal my Pokémon. Bye!" He yelled, beginning to run towards the Oldale Town Pokémon Centre.

"…You get money for fighting in these things?" Gupta asked, walking up to Sadik.

"Yep." Sadik confirmed. "Ya give prize money if you lose, and you get money if you win."

"…You owe me money then." Gupta deadpanned.

"Oh, right. Yeah. Of course." Sadik laughed a little. "We'll sort it out at the next town, kay?"

"…Right. Whatever." Gupta decided. "Do these trainers stand deliberately in the path so people have to battle them to advance?" He asked.

"…Well yeah." Sadik stated. "Isn't that obvious?"

"I'm not sure why I'm even surprised." Gupta admitted.

Immediately after the battle against the Youngster, Sadik went running off down the path, claiming he was going to fight other trainers on the Route. As Gupta walked after him (he really didn't see the need to run at this point), he noticed Sadik duck behind a line of trees, passing through tall grass deliberately to avoid a trainer stood at the edge of it. Despite Sadik running only a couple of feet behind the trainer's back, he didn't turn. Sadik continued to run through the tall grass, reaching the edge of the trees and beginning to run upwards, out of the grass.

"Ya can avoid trainers by runnin' behind them like that," he shouted back, before walking at a normal pace upwards into some tall grass that covered the path a few hundred metres ahead of Gupta. "I'll take tha trainer over here," he explained. "Ya can take the one back there."

"That would be a good idea," Cleo agreed. "You'll want to get some experience against other trainers. Mudkip could use the practice too."

"Alright…" Gupta gave in, walking forwards until he was in front of the trainer. The Bug Catcher leapt towards him.

"Caught you! You have to battle me now!" He decided, walking forwards to close the gap between him and Gupta. The teen noticed that this boy also looked little older than 10. Where were all these kids getting Pokémon from?

"I'm Rick by the way," The Bug Catcher stated. "What're you called?"

"Gupta." Said teen replied curtly, reaching into his pocket and pulling out Mudkip's Pokeball.

"Okay then, let's have a great battle!" Rick declared, pulling one Pokeball out of his bag. "Go Wurmple!"  
Gupta stared at the Wurmple that emerged from the Pokeball before sending out Mudkip.

"Mud?" Mudkip asked, looking around at his surroundings before seeing the Wurmple and getting the idea. "Mud!"

"Okay Mudkip, use Tackle." Gupta declared.

"Wurmple! Tackle!" Rick yelled. Mudkip ran and slammed into the Wurmple, and it pushed back with some force. In the end, Wurmple came off worse.

"Wurmple! Don't give up! Use Tackle!" Rick repeated.

"Tackle again Mudkip." Gupta commanded. Mudkip was able to move faster than the Wurmple and tackled it before it could react. The Pokémon collapsed instantly.

"Ah!" Rick leapt back, before returning his Pokémon to its Pokeball. "Don't think I'm done yet though! Go Wurmple!" He called as he threw another Pokeball at the ground.

"Wurmple!" Cried the second of the Bug Catcher's Pokémon.

"….Mudkip. Tackle it." Gupta reiterated. Mudkip looked confused at the fact that there was a second Pokémon for only a moment before running towards the Wurmple eagerly.

"Wurmple, Tackle that Mudkip!" Rick commanded his Pokémon. Mudkip slammed Wurmple before Wurmple pushed Mudkip back. Mudkip panted a little before picking himself up and returning to form.

"Tackle again Wurmple." The boy asked his Pokémon. Wurmple smacked into Mudkip.  
"Tackle it back," Gupta encouraged, causing Mudkip to surge forwards, hitting the Wurmple into a tree. The Pokémon laid still.  
"Aww, you're too good." Rick decided. "Guess I'll have to keep practicing." He reached into his pocket as he spoke and took out some money which he handed to Gupta. At the same time, he returned his second Wurmple to its Pokeball and placed it back into his bag. Mudkip stared after the Pokémon with a spaced out look on his face.

"Um, thanks." The teen responded.

"Okay, I'll heal my team now. Bye!" He waved as he left.

"That was really good." Cleo commented, walking up to Gupta as Mudkip turned around, noticed his trainer, and wandered back over.

"Yeah?" Gupta asked, picking up his Pokémon.

"Of course. I'm proud of Mudkip too. He handled that pretty well." She continued. "I think you should heal him before you go on though."

"I should?" Gupta replied. "Mudkip doesn't look too injured…"

"There's still a long way to go on this Route." She explained. "If you get into another battle, Mudkip might end up very hurt. You want him at full strength." She stopped and mused. "Sadik is actually very lucky he hasn't come across any wild Pokémon. Running is meant to bring them out."

"Ah." Gupta noted, taking his bag off so he could rummage through it for the potion he was sure he still had, juggling Mudkip in his arms as he did. When he found the bottle, he took it out, closing up his bag and putting it back on his back before wondering what to do with it.

"Do you need some help?" His mother asked, stroking Mudkip slightly as she drew closer.

"Uhh… Yeah." Gupta agreed.

"Right." She nodded, taking the bottle from Gupta. "Just spray it over him." She guided, treating Mudkip with the potion.

"Kiiip," Mudkip sang as he felt his wounds getting healed.

"Okay." She noted once she was done, pocketing the used potion.

"Yeah. Let's go find Sadik." Gupta suggested, walking off with Mudkip in his arms.

When they found Sadik, he had walked north, past the tall grass covering the path and up a grassy hill, and was busy battling another Youngster's Taillow. Just as they drew near, Ateş scratched the Taillow in the face and it fell down unconscious.

"Wow, you're really good." Complimented the defeated trainer. "That's my 5th loss today, you know? I guess I need a lot more practice."

"Try battlin' some wild Pokémon for a while. You'll get there, I'm sure of it." Sadik encouraged.

"Okay, sure," the boy smiled as he handed some money to Sadik. Meanwhile both trainers returned their Pokémon to their Pokeballs. "Well, I'll be off to heal my Pokémon. Bye, thanks for the battle!"

"Nice guy…" Sadik mused as he left. "I think his name was Allen?"

"You went off suddenly." Gupta commented as he walked over.  
"Ah. Yeah, guess I did." Sadik grinned. "I just wanted to do some battlin', but I didn't want ya ta miss out on the experience ya needed."

"Right." Gupta accepted.  
"Hmm…" Cleo mused, walking past the two teens and to the right of the T-junction they now stood at. Following her, the pair saw a patch of clear soil in which berry bushes were growing. Cleo walked over to the bushes, picked the berries that were on them, and planted a few of the picked berries in the ground.

"The plants will wilt and die now that they're harvested." She explained. "But we want to leave something behind for other trainers to find." She handed some of the berries to each of the boys.

"Thanks!" Sadik smiled.

"…Are you sure you're allowed to take those?" Gupta asked, sceptically.

"Yes." His mother answered. "They're Oran and Pecha berries. Oran berries can be fed to Pokémon to heal their wounds, and Pecha cure poison." She taught.

"Cool!" Sadik decided.

"Okay." Gupta stopped to put the berries in his bag. "Should we move on now?"

"Yeah." Sadik turned around and looked towards the left path of the T-junction. "There's one more trainer I can see. How about you battle her?"

"Okay," Gupta shrugged. He supposed it was fair, seeing as he'd only battled one other trainer on the Route already.

"Great! I'll just watch or somethin' then." Sadik suggested, staying a few steps behind Gupta as he walked towards the young trainer. She was looking around the area, seemingly searching for opponents; a marked difference from the other trainers on the Route who had all stood in one spot and stared straight ahead. As Gupta got closer to her, she actually turned to face him.

"Are you going to battle me?" She asked, hand moving to her pocket where Gupta assumed her Pokeballs were. He took a moment to think, noting that although she looked slightly older than the boys on the Route, she was still far younger than Gupta- certainly no older than twelve.

"Yeah, I'll battle you." He answered finally; a little guilty for the fact that she was clearly a child. It didn't feel right to take money from such young trainers!  
"Okay," she nodded. "Go Zigzagoon!"

"Zi?" The emerging Pokémon queried. As far as Gupta could tell, it didn't appear to have been caught long ago.

"Okay Mudkip, let's go." Gupta instructed, setting the dopey Pokémon down on the ground. Mudkip glanced over at the Zigzagoon inquisitively.

"Muuud."

"I'm Tiana by the way." The Lass smiled a little as she spoke.

"Gupta." The teen responded.

"Nice to meet you." She responded. "Okay Zigzagoon, use Tackle."

"Tackle Mudkip," Gupta ordered. Mudkip was slammed by the Zigzagoon, but was able to respond with a tackle of his own.

"Tackle again!" The Lass shouted to her Pokémon.

"Mud Slap." Gupta commanded. Mudkip was tackled while he was still coating his paws with mud. He leapt up and slapped the Zigzagoon who fell against the ground, fainted.

"Ah…" The girl grimaced as she returned her Pokémon to its Pokeball. "Okay, go Zigzagoon!" She threw another Pokeball at the ground and another Zigzagoon emerged.

"The trainers here seem to like having many of the same Pokémon," Gupta commented.

"Everyone but the guy I fought just now." Sadik responded.

"Zigzagoon, Tackle!" Tiana yelled.

"Mudkip, Tackle." Gupta said at the same time. Since the commands were the same, Mudkip had no issues with getting things mixed up, and took a tackle from Zigzagoon before tackling back.  
"Tackle again Zigzagoon." Tiana encouraged.

"Don't give up Mudkip, Tackle." Gupta told his Pokémon. Mudkip looked back to him and nodded, taking a tackle to the body while he was distracted. He turned around and slammed the Zigzagoon into a tree, where it fainted.

"Oh no… You're too good." The girl commented, returning her Pokémon to its Pokeball. Mudkip smiled and began staring at seeds flying in the air. "Maybe I need to catch some more Pokémon." She reached into her pocket and pulled out some coins she handed to Gupta. "Anyway, I'd better heal my team. Good thing I'm only a few minutes from Petalburg. See you!" She smiled and waved as she ran off down the path.

"Heh, that was good." Sadik complimented as he walked the few steps to close the gap between him and Gupta. "Yer getting better as a trainer."

"Thanks." Gupta responded. "Are we really only a few minutes from Petalburg though?"

"Yep." Cleo confirmed, walking up to her son. "We made good time, considering the interruptions we've had…"

"Yeah." Sadik agreed. "There's just one thing I've gotta do first." He turned away from the group as he began to walk south, reaching a ledge that led down into a patch of tall grass. Beyond the grass was a line of dense trees. Gupta wondered what Sadik was doing as the teen leapt over the ledge and landed in the grass, before he noticed the potion laying on the ground in the middle of the area. Mudkip followed him and Cleo as they walked to the edge of the ledge, and nearly jumped off before Gupta caught him, placing him back on the ground.

"I've no idea who leaves stuff like this layin' around," Sadik started as he walked over to the potion and picked it up. "But we'd better not let it go to waste. Finders keepers, eh?" He smirked as he put it into his bag.

"Is he allowed to do that?" Gupta asked his mother.

"…Nothing saying he can't." She replied. "People shouldn't leave stuff lying around."

"Huh." Gupta stared at Sadik as he began to walk back towards the ledge, moving towards the side where there was a small ramp. Before he could reach the relative safety of the short grass where Gupta and his mother were standing, a Poochyena leapt out of the taller grass at him. The teen leapt back, hand moving to his Pokeball to send out Ateş.

"Chic!" Ateş sang as he was released.  
"Okay Ateş, use Ember on it!" Sadik decided. Ateş looked towards him and nodded, before breathing fire at the Poochyena. The Pokémon charged Ateş, getting continuously hurt by the fire as it did. Sadik looked impressed by the Pokémon's endurance. Eventually it made its way to Ateş and tackled him to the ground. The Torchic picked himself up quickly.

"Hmm…" Sadik mused, hand moving towards his bag in thought. Gupta wondered what he was considering. After a few seconds the teen's face set in determination. He picked a Pokeball out of his bag and threw it at the Poochyena. The Pokémon could only stare at the ball as it opened and drew it inside. The ball then fell to the ground where it shook a couple of times. Gupta watched the scene, wondering how it would play out. He had never actually seen someone try to catch a Pokémon before.

"Come on…" Sadik whispered, as the ball shook one final time before clicking slightly.

"All right!" Sadik cheered, walking over to the ball and picking it up. "Guess we caught a new friend, eh buddy?"

"Tor! Chic!" Agreed Ateş.

"Okay then," he smiled, picking Ateş up and placing him on his shoulders before walking back to Gupta and Cleo a few metres away. "Should we go now?" He asked them.

"Okay." Cleo nodded, beginning to walk. Sadik, Gupta and Mudkip followed her.

A few minutes later, the group arrived in Petalburg City. Gupta knew this because the grass of Route 102 gave way for an actual road. Gupta had seen the buildings of the city in the distance, but the change from nature to town still happened suddenly and unexpectedly, so he wasn't sure what to think originally. As he looked around he noticed the houses and realised he had to have reached the city. From where he stood, he could just about see the Pokémon Centre. Cleo smiled as she realised they had arrived, while Sadik grinned and picked up the pace, wanting to reach the Pokémon Centre quickly.

"…The Centre will still be there in another few minutes." Gupta stated, deadpan.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. But I wanna make sure my team's all healed up." Sadik answered.

"Gupta… I should get to the Gym and check everything's okay." Cleo decided, coming up beside Gupta as he walked faster to keep up with Sadik. Mudkip whined as he was forced to run to keep pace. "I'll see you once you're done healing your team, okay?" She smiled reassuringly at the boys before walking even faster than both of them, heading off down the road towards the Gym. Gupta was left staring after her, and almost walked past the Pokémon Centre.

"Hey, it's this way!" Sadik pointed out, grabbing his arm to pull him towards the door. Gupta looked over to Sadik, not really reacting to the hold. He was used to being physically close to people, to the point he didn't even notice it when he got within touching distance of them most of the time.

"Yer acting as spaced out as yer Mudkip." Sadik continued. As if on cue, Mudkip ran into Gupta's legs as Sadik spoke, not noticing that they'd stopped.

"Oh. Right." Gupta shrugged as he picked up Mudkip and walked into the Centre.

"Hey, welcome to our Pokémon Centre!" The lady behind the desk smiled as Sadik and Gupta walked in.

"Are you the same nurse as the one in Oldale?" Gupta asked, a little weirded out by how similar the women looked.

"Nope, she's my sister," the nurse explained. "Do you have Pokémon you'd like to rest?"

"The nurses in this region are all relatives of one another somehow." Sadik elaborated as he returned Ateş to his Pokeball and handed both of his Pokémon over to the nurse. "Some of 'em are more distantly related than others."

"Right." Gupta nodded sceptically as he handed Mudkip over.

While the two teens waited for their Pokémon to be healed, they were approached by Tiana, who was also resting in the Centre.

"Hey, you're the guys from before." She acknowledged as she walked up to them.

"Yeah. Hi." Gupta responded.

"You know…" She mused, looking a little sheepish. "I've been hearing people talking while I've been sat here. They said the woman with you guys was the new Gym Leader."

Gupta sighed. Not this again. "Yeah." He confirmed. "She's my mother if you were wondering." He added, perhaps unwisely.

"No way! You're a Gym Leader's son? No wonder I lost!" She exclaimed.

"…Everyone seems to say that like it means something." Gupta thought out loud. He really had no idea why people expected him to be strong just because his mother was; he was a beginning trainer too after all!

"Well, yeah. Can't prove it isn't in the blood after all." Sadik commented.

"…Can't prove that it is." Gupta shot back.

"Heh, Touché." Sadik admitted.

"Yeah, well, I'm still using it as an excuse." Tiana giggled a little to herself. "Anyway, I have training to do. See you around!"

"Bye!" Sadik waved after her as she left. "Heh, nice girl." He mused.

"Uh, your Pokémon are healed now." The nurse interrupted.

"Thanks." Gupta nodded as he took Mudkip back, immediately letting him out of the Pokeball he had been placed in. He looked around before sniffing at the floor.

"Hey, thanks." Sadik grinned as he took his Pokémon back, sending them both out of their Pokeballs and looking them over, especially his new Poochyena.

"Heh…" He smirked as he picked the Pokémon up, flipping it over for some reason. Gupta wasn't sure the Pokémon was too happy.

"She's real strong." Sadik commented. Gupta instantly stopped his thoughts on the matter. _Oh._

"Pretty good endurance too. And she seems like the sensible, reliable type. Think I'll name her Asena." He continued.

"Okay." Gupta shrugged. Mudkip walked over to the new arrival, sniffing her before smiling goofily. If the confused look was anything to go by, Asena wasn't sure what to make of him. Ateş walked up to her and jumped her unexpectedly, trying to play. She really didn't take kindly to it, kicking the Torchic away.

"Hey, no fightin'!" Sadik stepped in, separating his Pokémon. "Play nice!"

Gupta stared. Asena was far more serious than Ateş or Mudkip. She wasn't any stronger than them though. Gupta had thought that maturity came with experience with Pokémon. Seems he was wrong.

'Great,' he thought to himself. 'Mudkip's probably not getting any better anytime soon then.'

"Heh, guess she just has a serious nature." Sadik suggested, placing Ateş on his head to prevent the Torchic bothering Asena again. She sat at Sadik's feet, looking a little indignant at being captured, but deciding against trying to escape.

"Nature?" Gupta queried.

"Yeah. Pokémon have different natures. They're kinda like personalities, in a broad sense. And they affect how they fight and what they like to do. There're loads of different ones." Sadik explained.

"Right." Gupta nodded. Guess that explained Mudkip… Maybe? He looked down at Mudkip, who had wandered back over to the desk in the middle of the Centre and was trying to lick it. Who was he kidding? Nothing quite explained Mudkip.


	7. Of Narcolepsy and Cats

Current Team: Gupta- Mudkip, level 10. Sadik- Torchic (Ateş), level12; Poochyena (Asena), level 5.

In this universe, the people travelling with the Pokedexes are the ones filling them in for the most part. In the games, you have to catch a pokemon to have its date appear but in the anime, you can check up on data about any pokemon seemingly at any time. This is kind of a half-way house- the good Professor has filled in the first few entries and after that Gupta and Sadik have to do their own. They don't have to catch any pokemon to do this though. And like anything of this nature, they don't have to be accurate. The descriptions are largely based off of actual in game flavour text, with each character's own personality thrown in (Sadik will exaggerate a lot).

Also, I used the NHS choices website as my main source for describing the sort of thing Herakles goes through.

* * *

Gupta became curious about the Pokedex after Sadik's rambling about natures, so while the other teen wandered over to the Pokemart, he sat at one of the tables of the Pokémon Centre and decided to test the device. Mudkip noticed him walking off and chased after him, running into the table leg before sitting at Gupta's feet. He looked at the bulky device, wondering how it worked, and figured out it had a lid he had to lift up. As he did this, it turned on. The screen displayed two bars on the top and bottom. One of the bars had a Pokeball symbol and the number '1' next to it along with a black circle and the number '6', and a red box within the bar with 'by number' written in it. The second bar had a shut-down button, a 'search/sort' button and a third button Gupta didn't know how to use. In the middle-left of the screen there was a dial covered with pictures of various Pokémon he'd seen in some sort of order. Multiple question marks filled in gaps in this order, while on the middle-right there was a scrolling list of Pokémon names that appeared to be in the same order as the pictures, again with question marks filling in places. As Gupta turned the dial to its beginning, he found the list started with a Pokémon he hadn't seen before. A pointer led from the list to the dial and identified the Pokémon as Treecko. Gupta pressed the portrait of the Pokémon and another screen full of data came up.

'Treecko, the Wood Gecko Pokémon,' the display read. 'Height 1ft 8in, weight 11lbs. Treecko has hooks on its feet that enable it to walk on walls and ceilings. Treecko never panics under any situation.'

"Huh," Gupta mused out loud, pressing a 'back' button that had appeared and scrolling the dial down to the next Pokémon displayed on the screen- which happened to be Torchic.

'Torchic, the Chick Pokémon. Height 1ft 4in, weight 5.5lbs. Torchic has a place inside its body where it keeps a perpetual flame burning. It likes to stay close to its trainer and will react to threats by spitting fireballs.' The display read.

"And it feels really warm if ya hug it." Sadik added, appearing out of nowhere to sit next to Gupta. Mudkip jumped up upon seeing the other teen before leaning over from his place at Gupta's feet to sniff at his shoes.

"Huh?" Said teen questioned, having no idea what he was going on about.

"'Cuz filled in some of those descriptions himself… For the starter Pokémon he keeps in the lab and that. But ya can edit them yerself to add stuff ya learn about the Pokémon ya meet, and yer expected to write yer own about the Pokémon further away from home." He explained.

"I see." Gupta nodded.

"So like," Sadik continued. "For Asena for instance. I made my own description of Poochyena. He opened his own Pokedex and read off what he had written. "Poochyena, the Bite Pokémon. This Pokémon is an omnivore and can eat anything. It chases after its prey until it becomes exhausted and its amazing sense of smell means this Pokémon will never lose track of its foes."

"…So you mean you exaggerated everything?" Gupta summed up, deadpan.

"Nah, it's not exaggerated; Asena can really do that stuff!" Sadik replied. "Anyway, I got ya some stuff." He handed Gupta a bag of some kind.  
"What's in here?" He asked, looking the package over.

"Ah, you know… Just some potions. Ya said I owed ya money." Sadik explained.

"…So you bought me potions?" The teen assumed.

"Yeah. Since ya used yers on Route 102. Figured ya'd want a replacement." Sadik explained.

"…Oh." Gupta replied. It made sense… Sort of.

"Well, if we're done here, I'm gonna get out to Route 104 and do some trainin' fer Asena. I don't want her to be behind compared to Ateş after all," Sadik decided. "See ya later Guppie!" He waved as he ran back out of the Pokémon Centre.

"Right…" Gupta looked down to his Pokedex, scrolled down to Mudkip, and read the description before editing it.

'Mudkip, the Mud Fish Pokémon. Height 1ft 4in, weight 1st 2.8lbs. This Pokémon sleeps in the Mud at the bottom of rivers and breathes using the gills on its cheeks. When in trouble, it can unleash power strong enough to crush boulders. Its head fin enables it to sense what's around it without the need for its eyes. This Pokémon is also remarkably stupid and spaces out easily.' The new description read. Gupta checked his addition over before putting away his Pokedex, picking up Mudkip (who was still sitting at his feet, staring around the area), and walking out of the Pokémon Centre, heading towards the gym.

When Gupta entered the gym, he found his mother already in conversation with Sadik.  
"I said your best bet was to head to Rustboro and have your first Gym Battle there," she explained to him. "You could learn things at the Trainer's School there too."

"Don't ya have a team to use against beginning trainers though? I heard Gym Leaders have to tailor their strength to match however many badges a trainer has." Sadik argued.

"I thought you were training?" Gupta asked him, walking up behind the Turk.

"I was, but then I decided to come here and test it out," he answered cockily.

"…My weakest team's designed for somebody with one badge already. The League expected everyone coming to challenge me to have already defeated Rustboro's Leader at least." Cleo stated. "So unless you want me to wipe the floor with you, come back later."

"Well, if that's the way it is…" Sadik nodded. "I'll just beat the Rustboro Leader and come back then."

"That's a good idea," she assured.

"Okay then, I'll be going," Sadik turned to Gupta. "I'll see ya later." He waved before running out of the Gym and heading towards Route 104.

"…You don't battle beginning trainers?" Gupta asked, walking closer to his mother. Mudkip looked between her and Gupta and chortled in happiness at being surrounded by people he knew.

"The League thought it best to encourage trainers to attend the Trainer's School where possible… So Gym Leaders within a couple days' travelling distance of Rustboro don't have teams tailored to trainers without any badges." She explained. "That includes me and the Leaders of Mauville City and Dewford Town. Trainers beginning their journey further afield than that can battle their local Gym Leaders for their first badge. I hear the Contest Hall in Lilycove City carries out performances explaining the basics to trainers from there, but I'm not sure what trainers from other towns do."

"So you know the Gym Leaders from Dewford and Mauville?" Gupta assumed.

"I know of all the Gym Leaders." She replied. "But wouldn't it be cheating if I told you everything about them?"

"… I suppose." Gupta accepted. "Should I come back when I have a badge too then?"

"No." She replied curtly. "I want you to come back when you have four badges. I want us to have a proper battle. And I want to see you grow stronger."  
"…You want me to defeat four other Gym Leaders?" Gupta reiterated.  
"Yes. Defeat the Leaders of Rustboro City, Dewford Town, Mauville City and Lavaridge Town. Then return. We can have a true battle then." She foretold.

"Alright…" Gupta agreed. "Can you at least give me a warning of what I'm going to have to deal with?"

"Hmm…" She pondered before answering. "I told you before about Rustboro's Leader. She hardly ever smiles, but she's not a bad person. She mostly uses rock-type Pokémon. The Leader of Dewford's quite energetic and friendly apparently… He uses water-type Pokémon, and I think I remember hearing he gives all his Pokémon names. Mauville's leader's meant to be scary in appearance, but underneath he's actually really childish. He uses steel-types. He's strange though. The trainers in that Gym are odd too." She paused for a moment. "And Lavaridge… Their Leader is young. I heard she left Dewford Gym and struck out on her own, but her brother's still a Gym Trainer there. I don't know much else about her though."

"Okay, I'll remember that. Thanks." Gupta nodded.  
"Good luck," she expressed. "I want to battle you remember."

Just as Gupta was about to turn and leave the Gym, the door opened and he looked around to come face to face with a boy about his age. An odd double curl of hair stood up at the top of his head. At the time, he was wearing beige cargo trousers and a loose white t-shirt along with simple brown boots. He had a tired smile on his face as he walked towards the duo in the Gym. Mudkip looked around, wondering what was going on, before he saw the boy. He watched the new arrival closely.

"Hello… I would like to borrow a Pokémon, please." The teen requested, voice slow and sleepy.

"Borrow… A Pokémon?" Gupta parroted, confused.

"You're Herakles, aren't you?" Cleo assumed, seemingly expecting the visitor.

"That's right. I am Herakles Karpouzi." He confirmed.

"I was told you would be coming," she continued, holding out a Pokeball to the boy, who took it with thanks before pocketing it. She then turned back to Gupta.

"This is Herakles. He's moving away and wants to catch a Pokémon to take with him. Could you go with him and help him?" She requested.

"Why me?" Gupta asked.

"You haven't caught any Pokémon yet… It would be good for you to watch some more Pokémon being caught. As well as that, I can't really leave the Gym, and Herakles hasn't left the City before… We don't want him getting lost." She explained.  
"You don't have a map?" Gupta turned to Herakles incredulously.

"No… Nothing like that. Although it would be nice to go out with someone… I'm not sure about being out on a Route with wild Pokémon without any of my own. If I were to fall asleep…" Herakles fretted (or at least, Gupta thought he might be fretting, although he still looked mostly sleepy).

"Why would you fall asleep?" Gupta questioned. Couldn't Herakles just drink some strong coffee if he was that tired?  
"I can't help it… I can't stop myself…" The boy tried to explain.

"Gupta, just take him with you," Cleo cut in. "Herakles, this is my son Gupta. You boys go catch Pokémon and then come back here, right?"

Herakles nodded. "Right." He turned to Gupta. "Let's go…" He began to walk, and Gupta looked back towards his mother once before following, still unsure as to what was going on.

"You're moving?" Gupta checked, wanting to break the silence that had descended on the pair as they walked towards Route 102. Mudkip was looking contently up at the sky, still in Gupta's arms.

"Yes… I am moving to a place called Verdanturf Town. It is so I can live my life with less stress… And have more of a chance of exercise. It cannot replace medication… But such lifestyle choices might help me manage my condition… That would be very nice. Although I will miss my mama… I'm going to be staying with my cousin instead." Herakles rambled.

"Condition?" Gupta reiterated, confused. Suddenly, he felt a little bad for making assumptions about Herakles before.

"Yes… I am tired all of the time. I do not sleep properly. So even when I sleep all of the time, I am still sleep deprived. Sometimes I get insomnia too. And it means I can fall asleep without meaning to. I am not sure why this happens… But I was told it was a medical condition." Herakles explained, seemingly not minding Gupta's curiosity.

"And you can't control it?" Gupta asked.

"I am trying to control it. But I cannot cure it. It is just a matter of learning to live with it. It's why I'm doing this." Herakles continued, patience still holding.

"I see… And you want to catch a Pokémon before you go away?" Gupta repeated from earlier. In light of the new information, Herakles's request to catch a Pokémon made far more sense.

"Right." Herakles confirmed. "So I can have a friend to keep me company while I'm away… And so I can go walking and get exercise without worrying about wild Pokémon."

"Okay." Gupta looked down to the path and noticed the road was coming to an end. "We're almost there."

"Good," Herakles nodded, continuing to walk.

A few minutes later, the two teens reached Route 102, and walked towards the patch of tall grass Tiana was still patrolling.

"Hey there!" She waved at Gupta. "Got a new friend?"

"I'm catching a Pokémon…" Herakles offered by way of explanation. "You seem to be training…"

"Uh, yeah." She smiled. "That's right." She looked the boys up and down. "Well, I won't keep you. Good luck!" She smiled and walked back into the grass.

"…Do we go in there too?" Herakles guessed, placing a foot into the grass.

"…That's the general idea, yes." Gupta confirmed.

Herakles nodded, stepping fully into the grass and wandering around a bit. A rustling was heard in the grass and Herakles turned to see a Skitty chasing its own tail.

"I'm not sure I've seen one of those before…" Gupta mused.

"Kip…" Mudkip agreed.

"It's so cute…" Herakles gushed, reaching into his pocket to send out the Pokémon he had borrowed.

"Shre?" The Sandshrew questioned as it was sent out. Gupta remembered seeing this Pokémon before: he was pretty sure it was one his mother trained.

"Okay, um…" Herakles wasn't sure what to do next.

"Get it to use Scratch." Gupta advised, while Mudkip just stared at the battle.

"Okay… Sandshrew, Scratch." Herakles commanded.

"Sa!" Sandshrew agreed, charging the Skitty, which still hadn't realised there were trainers and Pokémon around. It was sent flying back.  
"Should I use a Pokeball on it?" Herakles turned to Gupta for advice.  
"Well…" Gupta wasn't sure either. Sadik had made catching Pokémon look so easy. "Give it a try." He nodded.

"Okay." Herakles reached into his pocket again and pulled out an empty Pokeball (where he had gotten it from and how he hadn't mixed it up with the occupied one, Gupta didn't know), before throwing it at the Skitty. The device opened and drew the Skitty inside. Both teenagers held their breaths and stared at the capture ball as it shook a few times before clicking. Mudkip stared at the ball, wondering where the Pokémon had gone.

"…Is that it?" Herakles checked.

"That's it." Gupta assured.

"Good." Herakles picked up the Pokeball before walking out of the tall grass and slumping against a tree. "I'm tired…" He admitted as he fell asleep. Gupta stared, unsure of what to do, before deciding Herakles needed the rest and sitting next to him, settling Mudkip on his lap.

Mudkip had seemed content to sit for a few minutes with Gupta, but he quickly grew bored and began fidgeting. Gupta wasn't sure what had happened to his Pokémon- he was usually far lazier than this.

"Kip…" Mudkip stared at Gupta determinedly.

"What's wrong?" Gupta sighed at his Pokémon.

"Kip!" Mudkip declared, opening his mouth.

"What?" Gupta shrugged, unsure as to what Mudkip was getting at.

"Mudkip! Mud-kip!" The Pokémon insisted. Gupta became a little concerned he would wake Herakles.

"Shh," he insisted, pressing a finger to Mudkip's open mouth. "Herakles is sleeping."  
"Mudkip!" Mudkip cheered as he blasted water out of his mouth, the spray knocking Gupta over. Mudkip slid off his lap and onto the ground.

"Mudkip?" Gupta questioned. He looked over himself to find he was soaked. He looked to his Pokémon to find him walking towards Herakles with a cheerful look on his face. "Mudkip, don't," he pleaded.

Unfortunately, Mudkip didn't understand what Gupta was so annoyed about, and proceeded to spit water all over Herakles as well.

"Huh?" Herakles jumped as he was shocked awake. "What?!" He looked over to Mudkip. "Oh… Hello." He smiled sleepily and moved over to stroke the Pokémon.

"Herakles…" Gupta started, getting up and moving over to the boy, feeling guilty for what had happened.

"Your Mudkip… He knows Water Gun." Herakles stated, seemingly not caring for being woken up at all. Gupta could only stare at him. What was with this guy?

"Oh, you two are back." Cleo smiled as she saw her son and Herakles enter the Gym, both of them soaking wet. "Did you catch something?"

Herakles nodded. "Thank you… It's so cute." He smiled as he handed the Pokeball back to Cleo.

"What did he catch?" She asked Gupta.

"I'm not sure." Her son admitted.

"It was a Skitty… I love kittens, I really do." Herakles answered for him.

"Oh, that was good then." Cleo conversed. "I'm glad it worked out."

"Me too. Gupta's Mudkip learned Water Gun as well." Herakles revealed.

"That is good." Cleo looked to Mudkip, who had dozed off in Gupta's arms. "He's growing stronger all the time." She looked up to the boys. "Anyway," she continued. "Gupta, you should get moving. If you start now you should be able to make it to Rustboro by nightfall. As for Herakles… Your mother was asking after you. You should get home."

"Okay…" Herakles turned to Gupta. "It was nice to meet you. I hope we'll meet again… Goodbye for now." He smiled and waved at the two in the Gym before turning and leaving, still not caring for his sodden clothes.

"I should go too then." Gupta added, turning to leave. "Goodbye mama. I'll be back."

"Good. Just don't keep me waiting too long. I look forwards to being able to battle you." She insisted, moving to hug her son. "Safe travels Gupta."

He returned the hug for a moment (with one arm, because Mudkip was still being held in the other), before pulling away and walking from the building, turning to nod at her as he left. At least as he walked along the path leading to the edge of Petalburg City the mid-afternoon sun was shining bright enough to dry him off.


	8. Now that's one Gutsy Bird

Sorry for the lack of updates, I was fighting a cold and a uni project. This chapter is pretty long though.

So Gupta finally gets a new pokemon! And one which acts entirely differently to Mudkip. In fact, it's just really mature.  
There's a lot of random people in this chapter, but I wanted to get in all the NPCs on Route 104, and most of them really are that odd.  
Route 104 is going to be split into 2 different chapters with a third for Petalburg Woods in the middle, making the journey to Rustboro City 3 chapters long... Gupta's in for a long afternoon.  
Also, Mr Machado's there for a reason. Like almost every character with a suspicious name change, he's an actual cameo. I'd be interested to see if anyone can guess who.

* * *

_Gupta- Mudkip, level 10_

Gupta walked only a few more minutes before coming to a fork in the road. One path led down to the beach and along the coast, while the other led through a patch of tall grass along the cliff, and appeared to rejoin with the coast road on the horizon. Gupta looked down onto the beach and saw at least a couple of trainers waiting along it, almost certainly for people not willing to risk the grass. He decided to take the cliff path.

As though cursed by some divine being to have the worst luck ever (or perhaps due to having too much animal magnetism), a wild Pokémon leapt out at Gupta the moment he set foot into the grass. Or rather, a wild Pokémon swooped down on him the moment he set foot into the grass. The Taillow bounced off of his head before settling onto the grass before him, issuing a challenge.

"Low! Taillow!" It chirped. Gupta couldn't help but feel it was proud of itself. Mudkip noticed the noise and looked up at Gupta questioningly before realising the Taillow was there and had just attacked his Trainer.

"Kiiiip," he hissed.

"Okay then, if you want to fight, let's fight." Gupta decided, setting Mudkip down to face the Pokémon.

"Kip." Mudkip nodded in determination.

"Low!" Taillow cried, racing towards Mudkip with alarming speed and pecking him in the face. The slow Pokémon had absolutely no time to react, but Gupta reasoned even a fairly speedy Pokémon would have struggled. This bird Pokémon was fast!

"Mudkip, use Water Gun on it!" Gupta decided.

"Kip!" Mudkip cheered, spewing water at the Pokémon. It appeared to be quick enough to evade the spray at first, but it eventually got caught up and hit with one of Mudkip's persistent shots of water, falling to the ground.

"Okay, that should just about do it..." Gupta mused, thinking the battle won. Just as he was reaching down to pick Mudkip back up, the Pokémon appeared again, looking thoroughly annoyed.

"Low!" It protested, shaking the water from its feathers.

"You wanted a challenge." Gupta stated. "And you got one."  
"Tail..." Growled the soaked Pokémon, who swept back in to Peck Mudkip again.

"Kiiiiip." Mudkip complained.

"Alright, use Water Gun again!" Gupta commanded, as the Pokémon swept around for another hit.

"Mud!" Mudkip agreed, spewing more water at the bird and knocking it out of mid-air. It fell back to the ground, where it struggled to get back to its feet.

"Mudkip... " Mudkip mused, staring at the downed Pokémon.

"That should do it this time." Gupta stated, continuing to move through the grass and turning back to Mudkip when he noticed the Pokémon not moving to catch up with him. "Are you coming, Mudkip?" He asked, clarifying the fact that he was leaving.

Mudkip kept staring at the Pokémon. After a moment, he looked to Gupta with an unreadable look on his face.

"Kip." He emphasised, walking over to the downed Pokémon.

"What are you doing now?" His trainer questioned.

"Mud..." Mudkip replied, moving right over to the downed bird and licking it.

"Mudkip?" Gupta questioned. The Pokémon looked to the dopey thing as if it was mad before looking up to Gupta with respect in its eyes.

"Kip. Mud." Mudkip tried to explain, trying to drag the bird Pokémon to its feet in order to carry it over to Gupta. "Mud."

Gupta wasn't entirely sure what had gotten into Mudkip. Maybe the poor thing had actually cracked?

"Kip?" Mudkip pleaded, looking from the bird Pokémon to Gupta and back again.

"Um..." Gupta tried to figure out what exactly his Pokémon was getting at. Eventually he was left with only one conclusion.

"Do you think we should take it with us?" He assumed.

"Kip! Mudkip!" Mudkip confirmed, jumping up and down. The Pokémon looked at him as if he were mad. It was probably wondering how it lost to such a thing.

"Well... Okay." The human relented, picking a Pokeball from his bag and looking at it. So, did he just throw it at the downed bird?

"Here goes..." He mused aloud, pressing the button on the ball to inflate it before throwing it in the general direction of the Pokémon. It was a good thing that the device didn't need that accurate a throw, as it bounced on the grass a few metres away from the Pokémon before opening and drawing it inside. Mudkip looked towards the Pokeball surprised as the Pokémon disappeared into the ball, despite the fact that he had seemingly wanted this to happen. When the ball hit the ground again, it started to roll, and Mudkip continued to stare at it, tail fin wagging a little and face lit up in excitement. Finally, the ball came to a stop and clicked. Seemingly disappointed it was no longer moving, Mudkip trotted over to the ball and batted it with his paws a little.

"Don't. There's a Pokémon in there." Gupta chided, striding over to his dopey starter and picking the newly caught Pokemon's ball up.

"Well, there's two of you now." He mused aloud.

"Kip!" Mudkip barked in enthusiasm. Gupta sighed and pocketed his new catch before picking up Mudkip and walking back towards Petalburg. It really wouldn't do to leave the new addition injured.

Nobody else bugged Gupta while he was in the Pokémon Centre, and he noticed nobody he recognised other than the nurse, so while he was waiting for his Pokémon to be healed he got out his Pokedex and began looking up his new Pokémon.

He found that its name was Taillow and that it was classified as the tiny swallow Pokémon, but the rest of the information was blank. He realised he'd have to fill it in himself. Great.

Since the first thing on the list to fill was the height and weight of his new catch, Gupta decided to speak to the nurse while getting his Pokémon back. Perhaps she knew, or at least had some scales he could use.

"You want to know the specifics of your Taillow?" She summed up.

"Right." Gupta confirmed.

"Well..." She stalled as she handed Gupta's two Pokeballs back to him. "The Pokémon Centre service does keep notes on each Pokémon they see... Just let me see if I can find the record..." She mused as she dug around on her desk.

Gupta looked at her bemusedly. How had she lost the file? She must have only created it a few minutes ago!

"Oh, here it is!" The nurse cheered to herself as she picked up Taillow's file. "Okay, so your Taillow... Is female, weighs 5.1 lbs and is about a foot tall. That's more or less completely standard for this species." She stated.

"Interesting..." Gupta noted. "How many Pokémon exactly are standard for their species?"

"Oh, most of them," she shrugged off.

Gupta stood there for a moment wondering how that was possible. Surely Pokémon grew just like people did? And surely there would be at least some variation?  
"That doesn't mean they aren't all special," the nurse continued, smiling. "Was that what you wanted to know?"  
"Yes, thank you." Gupta nodded to the nurse, who waved back at him, before deciding to head back to Route 104.

The same choice between the beach path and the cliff full of wild Pokémon awaited Gupta once he arrived on the Route. Wanting to do something a little different this time, he took the stairs down to the coast path. Almost immediately he came face to face with a girl, and braced himself for battle.

"Oh no," she assured as she saw him and his expression. "I'm not a Trainer, and I don't want to battle you. But you're right, if two Trainers lock eyes, they battle."

"Right." Gupta nodded, moving past her and onto the beach. As he walked he noted that it seemed emptier than it had been earlier. Perhaps some of the trainers from before had gone home? As he wondered over this he wandered aimlessly, and ended up falling straight into the path of an actual trainer.

"Got you!" He yelled as soon as he was aware of Gupta. "Now you have to battle!"

"Okay, fine." Gupta shrugged, prepared for this by now.

"Okay, I'm Billy and I'm going to destroy you!" The Youngster asserted. "Go Seedot!"

Gupta raised an eyebrow at the emerging Pokémon. It appeared to be an acorn with a face. He realised he didn't have long to question it.

"Okay, Taillow, let's see what you can do." He called, throwing his new Pokemon's Pokeball.

"Tail!" Cried Taillow as it emerged.

"See," growled the Seedot.

"Okay Seedot, use Harden!" The young trainer commanded. The Pokémon nodded and appeared to try to draw into itself.

"Okay Taillow, use..." Gupta stopped and realised he had no idea what Taillow could do. He thought back to his battle against the bird and remembered she had jabbed Mudkip with her beak.

"Okay, use... Peck?" He guessed, hoping it would work. Taillow looked back at him and gave him a look that implied he was guessing right, before sweeping back around to charge at the Seedot with beak stretched outwards. As it connected, Gupta saw the enemy Pokémon cringe in discomfort. It really didn't seem to like that.

"Peck again." He encouraged.

"Seedot, Bide!" The Youngster instructed. The acorn like Pokémon nodded, and closed its eyes. Gupta wasn't really sure what it was doing, but Taillow looked a little cautious of it. It gave the Pokémon a wide berth before swooping around to Peck it again.  
"Don't give up!" The young trainer commanded his Pokémon. Gupta couldn't help but wonder what the kid was going on about. Don't give up doing what? As far as he was aware the Seedot was doing nothing but stand still... And pretend to be an acorn perhaps.

"Okay Taillow, peck it one more time." He commanded, hoping Taillow was strong enough to defeat the Seedot by itself.

"Low!" Taillow nodded as she fluttered in for the KO.

"Okay now!" The trainer shouted as Taillow was moving in. The bird's eyes widened, and Gupta realised what it had been cautious about as the tiny acorn moved forwards with full power, slamming into Taillow and knocking her out of the air. As she hit the ground, Taillow managed to dig her beak into the attacking Pokémon. Once she had a good grip, she used Seedot as an anchor to roll until she was upright again with the acorn beneath her. The Seedot didn't try to get up after the move, although Taillow herself also looked very tired.

"Oh no. Return Seedot," the trainer grumbled, recalling the Pokémon to its Pokeball. Gupta looked his Pokémon over and decided she needed to rest.

"You come back too Taillow." He mused as he recalled her. She looked back to him and nodded respectfully as she disappeared back into the ball.

"Okay, you may have won that battle, but I will win the war!" The kid mused. "Go Taillow!" He yelled, sending out a bird of his own.

"Okay Mudkip, your turn," Gupta replied, sending out the dopey starter.

"Kip?" Mudkip questioned as he noticed he was back out of the Pokeball. It took him a few seconds to look around and notice the Taillow opposite him.

"Kiiiip." He chortled in realisation. Gupta only hoped he hadn't mistaken this Taillow for their teammate.

"Okay Mudkip, Water Gun." He directed.  
"Taillow, Quick Attack!" The Youngster shouted. Quick as a flash, the Taillow swung around and slammed into Mudkip, who staggered backwards before launching a defiant Water Gun towards the Pokémon. It connected, but didn't quite knock Taillow down. Gupta stared and wondered if his Taillow could do that.

"Okay Mudkip, Water Gun again," he continued regardless, wanting to win this battle.

"Peck Taillow!" Billy decided.

"Mud." Mudkip stated as he tried to dodge the incoming Taillow. He ended up hit square on, being just too slow for the task. "Muuud..."

"Don't let it get to you." Gupta advised. Mudkip looked back at him and nodded before launching another Water Gun straight into the face of the Taillow. The Pokémon still remained flying, but appeared fairly injured. Gupta reasoned that resilience was a trait of the species as a whole.

"Quick Attack again Taillow!" Billy repeated, throwing his hand out excitedly as he spoke. Again, Gupta found Mudkip being slammed before he could really react.

"Just Water Gun!" He told the water-type. Mudkip responded to this easily, stepping back only a little before firing another jet of water at the Taillow. This time it worked, as the Pokémon fell to the ground and didn't move again.

"Aw man." Billy whined as he recalled his second Pokémon to its Pokeball. "Guess you won after all... Here." He reached into his pocket and brought out more small coins which he handed to Gupta.

"Anyway," he continued before Gupta had a chance to react. "I'd better be getting home now. Bye!" He smiled and waved before running off towards Petalburg.

Gupta was left staring after him. He looked down at Mudkip, who appeared to be trying to figure out what had just happened. He thought of his Taillow and how tired she looked. He decided he'd have to go back to the Pokémon Centre.

The nurse had mused something about the trainers on the beach and going home in the evening when Gupta had brought his Pokémon back to her, but he hadn't paid any attention. Instead, he'd been planning his walk back through Route 104. As he got to the beach again he noticed it was almost empty, with only one other person standing right at the other end of the beach. He decided to set off towards that person. He had no desire to speak to them, but the beach was otherwise empty, and he couldn't say the same for the cliff path and the Pokémon that lurked on it.

As he walked, Gupta became aware of a house in the distance. As he got closer, he could see that the house was built on the cliff above the other end of the beach, with a pier stretching out of the cliff at the side of the house and into the water. A small yacht type boat was moored at the pier. Gupta wondered who lived there. After all, they could afford a yacht.

While he was pondering this, Gupta walked past the other person on the beach. The young boy stood facing away from Gupta, staring into the sea. Gupta looked around at him and he spoke, causing the teen to jump in surprise.

"The sea... I wonder what it's like at the bottom of the sea?" He murmured, seemingly lost in thought. Gupta stared at him for a moment but got no other sound from the boy and assumed he was talking to himself. Feeling a little awkward, the teen decided to just climb the stairs to the cliff.

Once he had reached the top of the stairs, Gupta found himself staring straight at the house on the cliff. The first thing he noticed was that the door had been left open. Alarmed, the teen moved towards the door to inspect the house. He peered through the opening but found the entire ground floor to be devoid of life. There was a table and a single chair, a few cabinets full of food and other random things and little else. The ground floor was also the only floor. Gupta reasoned that somebody had left in a hurry and left the door open in their haste... Then again, the lack of things also suggested the person didn't have much worth stealing anyway... Whoever they were. The situation on the inside of the house didn't suggest the owner had the money to run a boat like the one outside... But then, maybe they just didn't care for possessions? It was possible the boat was the only thing the person cared about enough to not want stolen. It wasn't unreasonable the keys were with that person if that were the case.

'But then why leave the house in such a rush?' Gupta mused to himself.

The thinking was making his head hurt, so Gupta instead decided he didn't really care as long as there was a high chance the house wouldn't be burgled. Strange things seemed to be the norm in this region. As he leant away from the door to the house and began to walk back onto the path to Rustboro he noticed a strange sign planted in the ground next to the house.

'Mr Machado's Cottage' was written on it.

Gupta really had to think at that, wondering how this Machado guy was famous enough to warrant having a sign with his name on it outside of his house. Did everyone need to know who the cottage belonged to? Deciding he didn't care about that either, Gupta walked off down the path to Rustboro, noticing he had now navigated around the tall grass successfully. Just as he was about to turn his back on the way he had come entirely, he noticed a boy running towards him. Oh no.

"Hey, I can't believe I missed you earlier!" He cried as he ran towards the teen. "I've been standing here all day handing out advice to new trainers and I didn't see you before!"

"Um... Why?" Gupta questioned.  
"Because somebody needs to tell all the new trainers what to do! Anyway, today's tip is to always weaken a wild Pokémon before you catch it. Try burning it, paralysing it, or inflicting poison for extra effectiveness." The boy rambled.

"Did you get that from a book?" Gupta dead-panned.

"Yep, it's my adventure handbook," the boy smiled at his own words.

"Thanks, but I already have it covered," the teen stated, holding up his two Pokeballs as proof.

"Wow! You have to be some kind of prodigy or something!" The child enthused.

"No... I just already knew how to catch Pokémon." Gupta insisted.

"Oh. Well, okay then. I guess I'll see you around." The boy grinned for good measure before running off through the grass again. Gupta wondered how he could be so cheerful. And how he could manage to run that far through the grass without encountering any Pokémon. Also, if he knew so much about Pokémon, why wasn't he trying to battle like everyone else on the Route?

After that very strange encounter, Gupta once more began his walk towards the Petalburg Woods and Rustboro City. Along the way he encountered yet another young person wandering aimlessly around in circles. At least this girl appeared to be picking flowers instead of doing actually nothing. As he drew close, she picked herself up to speak to him.

"Did you know Mr Machado lives at the seaside cottage over there?" She asked.

"Well, yes." Gupta nodded. It was written on the sign...

"He was once a mighty sailor you know. He was never afraid of the sea no matter how rough it got." She continued unperturbed.

"Okay," Gupta accepted, continuing to walk past her without another word. Even more strangely, she didn't seem to notice this and just carried on picking flowers.

After a few more minutes, Gupta found some more cleared soil in which berry plants were growing. He picked the berries, not really knowing which they were or what they were for, and planted a few of the berries he had picked in return, wondering how they could possibly grow quickly enough for other trainers to be able to use them. He also wondered how they would grow with no water; the soil was dry despite being close to the sea and Gupta had no way to water it. Deciding it wasn't his problem, he moved on.

Gupta was almost to the woods when he finally came face to face with another actual trainer. The boy had been looking around himself boredly when he noticed the teen, and almost immediately came running towards him.

"Oh finally. Someone's here. I'm bored you see." He stated.

"Too bad for you," Gupta shot back.

"But, now you're here. So we have to battle." The boy carried on.

"Okay," Gupta shrugged, hand moving into his pocket to pick a Pokémon out.

"Okay Zigzagoon, let's go!" The Rich Boy called, throwing a Pokeball at the ground in front of him.

"Goon!" Cried the emerging Pokémon.

"Okay Taillow," Gupta responded, throwing Taillow's Pokeball in response.

"Low!" Taillow called as it came out of the ball.

"Taillow, Peck!" Gupta commanded, knowing in theory that Taillow could learn Quick Attack but wanting to wait to try that until a moment when it didn't matter.

"Low!" Taillow responded, flying up into the air and then down towards the Zigzagoon. It managed to send the Pokémon flying quite a distance as it connected.

"Zigzagoon, Tackle!" The boy replied, causing the raccoon to charge back forwards and hit against Taillow in retaliation. She staggered a little, but still appeared determined.

"Peck again Taillow!" Gupta encouraged.  
"Use Tackle again!" The Rich child ordered.

"Goon," Zigzagoon growled as it ran towards Taillow.

"Tail!" Taillow roared as it met the challenge head on, getting a strong Peck into the opponent but receiving some damage from Tackle in response. As the two Pokémon leapt away from each other, both appeared damaged. Gupta remembered how fast Taillow was, and knew he could win if he acted now.

"Taillow, Peck!" He told his Pokémon. Taillow nodded and swooped back towards Zigzagoon.

"Tackle!" The boy cried, but it was too late. Zigzagoon was hit first, and before anyone but Taillow could react the small Pokémon collapsed to the ground.

"Geh, it looks like you won." The Rich Boy conceded as he returned his Pokémon to its ball.

"Low." Taillow nodded in celebration before flying down to land in front of Gupta.

"That was good," the teen told his Pokémon as he returned it to the ball.

"I suppose you deserve this then. Just a small amount of prize, simple change, you understand." The child continued, holding out some sort of note to Gupta. He took the money, looked at it, and had to resist the urge to laugh. This was nearly a month's worth of pocket money. He didn't want to think about how filthy rich the child had to be to consider this 'change'.

"Anyway, I'd probably better be off... Mama does worry when I'm late returning. Good day." The boy nodded once before walking off back towards Petalburg.

"Okay." Gupta mused to himself as he looked down at the money he'd received. As he went to put it away he remembered how tired Taillow had looked and decided to head back to the Pokémon Centre. Again.

"You really have been here a lot today," the nurse shrugged to herself as she took care of Gupta's Pokémon.

"I've been in a lot of battles," the teen replied.

"That is true... Are you still going to head for Rustboro today?" She questioned.  
"That is the plan." Gupta confirmed.

"Well you'd better get a move on if that's true." She advised. "It really isn't long until sunset. If you go now you could make it, but if anything else holds you up even a little you'll be walking there in the dark."

"I'll keep that in mind. Thanks," Gupta responded, as the nurse handed his Pokémon back to him.

"Okay then. Good luck." She smiled.

As he wandered back towards Petalburg Woods Gupta noticed the first red rays of sunset shining over the sea and decided to pick up the pace. As he did so he put away his Pokedex, newly filled in after his eventful few hours.

'Taillow, the tiny swallow Pokémon. Height 1ft, weight 5.1lbs. Taillow is very courageous despite its size. This Pokémon will remain defiant against most odds... But I bet it gives up when it gets hungry.' The Pokedex entry read.


	9. The Affable Victim

Gupta- Mudkip, level 10, Taillow, level 6

Thailand appears in this chapter as the poor man under attack. And his canon pet too (turned into a pokemon of course).  
Also, sorry for any fans of Kenya who think she's a little too evil here. She's more of a punch clock villain in the long run, which should become more apparent as the Admins begin to have a role.

* * *

Petalburg Woods was a quiet place. Or at least, it was on the late afternoon day when Gupta walked into it. Only the slightest rustling of leaves was audible to him as he began to walk through the forest. A few steps from the entrance, he became aware of a straight path running through the woods to the exit on the horizon. The path appeared to have no trainers or obstacles of any kind... Except for the numerous ledges along it, that prevented anyone entering from Gupta's side from just walking straight through. Instead, the only path viable for the teen to take winded around trees and through patches of tall grass, taking a meandering route to the same destination. Gupta sighed. Just perfect.

Deciding he had no choice, the boy set off towards the first patch of grass, noticing a sign stapled to a tree as he did so.

'Trainer Tips: Any Pokémon that appears even once in a battle is awarded EXP Points. To raise a weak Pokémon, put it at the left of the team list. As soon as a battle starts, switch it out. It will earn EXP Points without being exposed to any harm.' The sign read. Gupta stared at the sign, wondering what the team list was and what the importance was of having a Pokémon on the left of it. Then he wandered off into the grass.

Almost immediately after he set foot into the grass, Gupta found himself challenged by yet another trainer.

"I'm Lyle and I'm going to destroy you!" The Bug Catcher stated confidently.

"Gupta. And I doubt it." The teenager shot back coldly, still wondering what kids were doing with Pokémon.

"That's what you think! Go Wurmple!" He shouted, throwing a Pokeball into the grass and releasing the Pokémon inside in the process.

"Urmple?" It questioned.

"Okay," Gupta mused, deciding which Pokémon he wanted to use and getting its Pokeball ready. "Go Taillow."

"Tail," Taillow chirped as she appeared from the Pokeball and began to look around. She almost instantly spotted the opposing Pokémon, and understood what she had to do.

"Alright Taillow, use Peck," Gupta decided. Taillow swooped forwards and pecked the bug Pokémon, knocking it to the ground. It didn't get up. Gupta couldn't help but feel that the Wurmple had been especially weak.

"Aww, you're really strong," the boy complained, returning his Pokémon to its ball. "Good thing I have more where that came from!" He called, throwing a second Pokeball that brought forth a second Wurmple.

"He has two of those?" Gupta mused aloud. Taillow looked almost as confused as he was.

"Wurmple, use String Shot!" The Bug Catcher commanded his Pokémon.

"Peck again Taillow," Gupta directed. Taillow connected with the Wurmple first but this Wurmple stayed conscious, and proceeded to spit sticky threads at Taillow that gummed up her wings. She ended up having to land, and looked thoroughly annoyed at the fact.

"Peck it Taillow," Gupta advised. Taillow looked back at him as if to suggest she had been wanting to do just that, and hopped towards the Wurmple at speed, pecking it again before it could do anything. This time, the Pokémon fainted.

"Wow, you really are good," the trainer complimented. "Too bad you'll lose eventually though. You'll get caught up in the string and then we'll beat you! Go Wurmple!" He shouted, letting loose a third Pokémon. Gupta stared at it in disbelief. How could he have another Wurmple...?

Several minutes and three more Wurmple later, Taillow sat on the ground trying to preen her feathers from half a dozen String Shots, the trainer was defeated, and Gupta was wondering if the kid knew even the first thing about battle strategy.

"Well, I suppose that's what happens when I focus too much on just catching Pokémon and not training them..." The Bug Catcher mused as he handed over some prize money. "I only just got this team from the wild, and I'm out of Pokeballs too. Time to call it a day." He decided, waving at Gupta. "Goodbye!"

Gupta stared after him before walking over to his Taillow. Her wings were still stuck with the string from the Wurmples.

"Annoying, isn't it?" He empathised, trying to help get rid of the tacky substance. As he worked, he came up with an idea.  
"Hey Taillow... Can you use Quick Attack?" He queried, thinking it would be good to try now that it was safe. Taillow looked at him for a moment and broke her wings free, before seemingly deciding to try it, swooping up into the air and charging towards a tree as fast as she could. Unfortunately, although she was fast, she was not fast enough, and it was obvious that no attack could come from the speeds she was reaching. She also crashed into the tree. Gupta managed to catch her as she fell.

"Maybe you need to be a little stronger..." He mused, checking her over for any injuries.

As he did this, the teen became aware of somebody shouting. Deciding to investigate, he placed Taillow onto his shoulder to rest, and walked a few hundred metres uphill to the end of the tall grass, at which point the path veered to the right. He took the now clear path, noticing he had climbed uphill enough to pass the first of the ledges, and then wound back around to the left, until he was heading North again. It was here that he caught a glimpse of the trouble in the distance.

A young man with glasses and rather unruly brown hair was standing against a tree, being harassed by a strange figure who looked oddly familiar. In front of the young man was a Pokémon Gupta didn't recognise- a blue four-legged Pokémon with a long nose and ears. It appeared to be suffering badly.

"Don't hurt Toto like that," the young guy fumed, clearly annoyed at the figure who Gupta assumed had to be an attacker.

"Well give over those goods then. If you do that then I won't have to." The woman threatened, and Gupta realised why she had seemed so familiar. She was the same strange woman who had been tearing pieces off of the Oldale Town ruins earlier in the day.

"Give over the goods...?" The man frowned a little (something which looked completely unnatural on his face for some reason), before his eyes hardened. "I can't do that." He shook his head. "You can't threaten me like that,"

"Well, I suppose something bad will have to happen then... You know how Pokémon can get..." The woman smirked.

Gupta stood and stared at the exchange in shock. Where were the police? Did nobody else care that this was happening? It was then that Gupta noticed the Poochyena at the woman's feet. The Pokémon growled at the man. The teen knew that those Pokémon were renowned for chasing their opponents until they won (even if Sadik tended to over-exaggerate Asena), and decided he had no choice but to step in.

"...You already defeated his Pokémon. Just take his money and go," Gupta spoke up as he walked towards the pair, seemingly sounding like just another trainer. The woman and man both turned to the teen; he looked surprised to see someone, while her face lit up in recognition.

"You... You're the kid from Oldale," she noticed. "This isn't just some trainer battle. This man has something that I need."

"So you're going to threaten him to gain it?" Gupta glared her down. "You shouldn't be using Pokémon as tools to do your dirty work." He wondered why exactly he was lecturing on ethics, but he supposed it was true. It was cowardly and cruel to the Pokémon, and it seemed there was nobody other than Gupta to do anything about it.

"Don't tell me what to do," she huffed. "Poochyena, get him first!"

"Why did I have a feeling this was going to happen...?" Gupta wondered to himself, before deciding it was better to just take care of the Poochyena. Taillow still looked as though she was recovering from crashing into the tree, and in fact appeared to have fallen asleep, so he decided to use Mudkip.

"Kip?" The Pokémon questioned as he was sent out.

"We have to fight," Gupta tried to explain as the Poochyena reached them, and stared Mudkip down while waiting for orders.

"Just Tackle!" The female commanded.

"Water Gun Mudkip!" Gupta responded. Mudkip nodded at Gupta, but failed to notice the Poochyena running towards him. He was sent flying back before he responded with a Water Gun in the direction of the Pokémon.

"Okay Mudkip, use Tackle," Gupta directed.

"Sand Attack Poochyena," the woman responded. This time, Mudkip ran forwards towards the Poochyena only to be hit in the face with some dirt. He began to panic a little and broke off his charge... But tripped over and barrelled into Poochyena anyway with his excess momentum, sending both Pokémon flying.

"Kiiiip!" He complained, landing onto his back.

Poochyena fell to the ground after the attack and didn't get up. Mudkip rolled back onto his front and stared at it curiously, before looking to Gupta and smiling.

"Damn, you're tough for a kid," the mysterious woman cursed, returning her fainted Pokémon to the Pokeball. "Still, if you think that's the only thing I can throw at you, you're mistaken." She threw a second Pokeball as she spoke, and released a Pokémon that Gupta didn't recognise.

"Purrloin!" Purrloin growled.

"Mud." Mudkip answered back.

"Purrloin, Scratch that Pokémon!" The figure demanded.

"Water Gun Mudkip," Gupta guided.

Purrloin charged towards Mudkip, who took a Scratch to the face before he had time to react, and then responded by spitting water towards the cat-like creature. It was forced back by the jet, and began to panic a little.

"Purr..." It complained to its trainer.

"Just Scratch again," she shot back, clearly annoyed.

"...Water Gun again," Gupta stated, deadpan.

The Pokémon belonging to the strange woman ran up to Mudkip and scratched him yet again, but Mudkip retaliated with a spray of water that knocked the Purrloin back against a tree. It didn't try to move again.

"Damn! How could I lose to a kid like you?" The figure seethed, returning her Pokémon to its Pokeball. "Guess I have no choice but to use my own force then." She turned to the man she had been harassing before, who for whatever reason had been watching the battle instead of doing the sensible thing and running away. "You're going to hand over those goods right now, or you'll have my fist to answer to!"

The man, who before had looked worried, was now confident. He clearly didn't fancy this woman's chances without her Pokémon. "Try me." He stated defiantly. The woman seemed to hiss in annoyance at his bravado, but it was soon shown to be down to more than simple words. When she tried to aim a punch at the man, attempting to take him down herself, he blocked her effortlessly, and managed to spin her around and onto the ground with a finesse Gupta rarely saw in a person.

"You see, without your Pokémon to bully me, I'm more than capable of taking care of myself," the man stated, standing over the figure. "Still... I suppose I can let you go... So long as you abandon your plans for stealing these goods."

"Huh. We have many plans. Many different operations going on... Plenty that have nothing to do with you. In fact, there's a team on its way to Rustboro right now..." The female replied cryptically.

"If you can do so well without me, go." He demanded, leaning away from the woman.  
"...Fine." She spat, springing to her feet. "You haven't seen the last of Team Aqua," she insisted, before turning tail and running from the scene.

"Tail?" Taillow chirped from Gupta's shoulder, waking up from her nap and appearing refreshed.

"...Mud." Mudkip huffed, glad it was all over.

"Thank you for helping me," the previously harassed man spoke up, a wide grin appearing on his face as he walked over to where Gupta was. The teen couldn't help but feel like the smile looked completely natural for the man's face.

"It's no problem," Gupta stated. "Although, you looked like you could handle it."  
"I couldn't handle Pokémon like that. I can't fight such powerful beings myself," he insisted. "The only protection I have out here is Toto, and he looks far too tired to fight." He looked back towards the blue Pokémon from before, who was still unconscious on the ground. Mudkip followed his gaze and began walking towards the downed Pokémon.

"...Why didn't you return him to the Pokeball if he's so tired?" Gupta queried.

"I never got the time. And I don't like to keep him in the ball unless I have to. He doesn't like it." The man replied. Meanwhile, Mudkip reached the strange Pokémon and began to poke it.

"Mudkip, leave the poor Pokémon alone," Gupta sighed. His starter looked towards him and yawned.

"I suppose I'll have to return him to the ball now though... He's too heavy to carry by myself," the guy continued, walking over to his Pokémon and picking a Pokeball out of his pocket before returning the Pokémon to the ball. Gupta noticed that the ball was black with some kind of pattern on it.

"Anyway, I should thank you for helping us," the man smiled again, reaching back into his pocket and pulling out a different kind of Pokeball, with blue and red markings on it. "This is a Great Ball. We make them at my company, so I'll let you have one for free."

"Thanks," Gupta replied, taking the item.  
"I'm Kasem by the way. You look like a nice kid, so you should come by and visit the corporation sometime," the employee decided.

"I could," Gupta stated non-committally.

"Well, I'd better get moving. I'm meant to be handing these goods to someone... See you around!" Kasem waved as he headed off in the direction of Petalburg City. Gupta wondered if he was going to be alright. And also what he had been doing in this part of the forest when he could just have walked down the ledges.

"Kip." Mudkip called randomly, walking over to Gupta and sitting at his feet.

"We need to go too." His trainer replied, picking up the dopey Pokémon and making his way further down the winding path.

Gupta had almost made it to the end of the forest when another trainer ran up to him wanting to battle.

"Hey, it's a good thing I didn't go home, huh?" He laughed to himself. "Finally, some training!"

"You don't like training with wild Pokémon?" Gupta assumed.

"It's boring. But you look interesting!" The kid smirked. "I'm James, and I'd really like to try and beat you."

"You can try." Gupta responded.  
"Okay then, go Nincada!" James shouted excitedly, throwing a Pokeball and sending out another Pokémon Gupta didn't know a lot about.

"Nin." The Pokémon looked back to its trainer and nodded as it emerged.

"Right." Gupta weighed up his options. He supposed that Mudkip had to be tired after the fight with the strange woman, so chose to use Taillow.

"You fight Taillow," he told the Pokémon.

"Low!" Taillow chirped in affirmation, flying from Gupta's shoulder to the forest floor.

"Kiiip..." Mudkip complained, struggling in Gupta's arms.

"You can fight next time," the trainer promised.

"If you're done talking," James whined. "Nincada, use Leech Life!"

"Peck Taillow," Gupta responded.

Taillow swooped in, getting the edge on the opponent's Pokémon, who took the hit straight on. However, while Taillow still remained in contact with the Nincada, the Nincada leant up and bit Taillow on the neck.

"Low?" She questioned, wondering what it was trying to do before shaking it off with ease. The Pokémon fell to the ground and appeared to not be able to find Taillow, if its frantic looks around the area were anything to go by.

"...That didn't look very effective." Gupta commented.

"Oh nuts! Yeah, Bug types are weak to Flying..." James mused. "Okay then Nincada, use Scratch!"

"Peck again Taillow." Gupta repeated.

Taillow swept forwards to Peck again, and Nincada felt the air moving as the bird approached, turning around to stick its claws out and landing a Scratch on Taillow's face as Taillow used Peck on it in turn. Taillow shrugged the wound off, not losing face at all.

"Wow, your Pokémon are tough," the Bug Catcher commented.

"Taillow, use Peck and finish this," Gupta finalised.

"Scratch Nincada!" James shouted to his Pokémon. But he was too late to act, as Taillow's swiftness brought Nincada down before it could hear its trainer's command.

"Oh drat... You won I guess. I really need to pay attention in school," James laughed to himself as he returned his Pokémon to the ball.

"You go to the Trainers' School?" Gupta inferred.

"Yeah, but I'm just starting out. I need more practice." The kid decided. "Anyway, you won so you can have this." He pulled out a few random coins and handed them to Gupta. "Well, my parents will kill me if I don't get home. I wish I was grown up like you and could go where I want. See ya!" He smiled and waved as he left. Taillow swooped around and landed back on Gupta's shoulder.

"Low." She smiled to herself.

"He thinks I'm grown up?" Gupta shook his head. He wasn't that old...

Gupta didn't see anyone else on his walk through the woods, and only a few hundred metres down the road from where he had met James, he turned a corner and saw light streaming out of an exit to the forest a few hundred metres more in front of him. The light looked red, and Gupta assumed the day was coming to an end rapidly. He hadn't exactly made it through without any hold-ups, which blew his plan a little out of the water. Perhaps if nothing else happened he could still make it to Rustboro.

As he walked towards the exit, Gupta saw a second sign.

'Trainer Tips: In addition to Hit Points [HP], Pokémon have Power Points [PP] that are used to make moves during battle. If a Pokémon runs out of PP, it must be taken to a Pokémon Centre.' The sign read. The teenager wasn't exactly sure what the second sign was going on about either. He'd never heard of Power Points... But then, he didn't know what Hit Points were either. He shrugged it off as he walked through the exit into the outside world, with Mudkip in his arms and Taillow perched on his shoulder.


	10. The Flower Shop's Interloper

Gupta- Mudkip level 11, Taillow level 7; Sadik: Torchic (Ates), level 12, Poochyena (Asena), level 10.

This Chapter, Sadik returns and we meet a new character!

Just as a note, the Ivan that appears in this chapter is _not_ Russia. He's a random guy who actually exists in Ruby/Sapphire and happens to be called Ivan by coincidence.

This is really long, but I was not going to spend _another_ chapter after this wandering around Route 104.

* * *

When he emerged from the forest, Gupta took a moment to look around. The sun was now setting in the late afternoon sky, casting long rays across the whole area. Soon, it would get dark. But Gupta wasn't in Rustboro City yet. He could see buildings on the far horizon, but before he could reach them, he still had to traverse the rest of what he assumed was Route 104. Where Gupta was, the path split and continued in two directions; one clearly led only a few hundred metres to a shop of some kind, and the other wound itself around two more trainers and then onto a bridge that passed over a lake. At the edge of this bridge, a short road began and ran into Rustboro City.

At a glance, the path leading straight to the city was the obvious choice, considering the fact that Gupta was running out of time to get to Rustboro. However, Mudkip disagreed with his assertion, struggling in Gupta's arms until he put the Pokémon down. Once he was on the ground, Mudkip started to walk calmly towards the flower shop.

"Mudkip, no. We don't have time to take a detour." Gupta insisted.

"Mud." Mudkip barked back as he continued to walk.

"Tail." Taillow huffed disdainfully, clearly not caring for Mudkip's apparent foolishness. Gupta just sighed and decided to humour him.

As he got closer to the flower shop, Gupta became able to see another patch of soil on which berry plants were growing. He walked up to the patch to see if he could pick the berries there, but found that the plants were still growing, and hadn't even got any flowers yet.

"Some guy came by a few hours earlier and picked the berries there." A voice behind him explained. Gupta turned around to see a boy looking back at him.  
"A few hours? They really grow that quickly?" He asked, surprised.  
"Yeah. Amazing, isn't it?" He shrugged. "Anyway, I have way too many of these, so here." He tossed some sort of disc in Gupta's direction.  
"What is this?" He questioned. He hadn't ever seen the device before. It certainly wasn't a CD or a DVD or similar... Or was it? It did look similar.

"That's a TM, or Technical Machine." The boy explained. "They used to break after every use, so I bought boxes of them, but I didn't realise that they recently made them suitable for multiple uses. So I ended up with a dozen, and I don't need that many. So keep it."

"Thanks but... What does it do?" Gupta queried, slipping his bag off of his back so he could put the disc away. Somehow, there was a pocket that was just the right size.

"It teaches Pokémon new moves." The boy explained. "That one teaches Bullet Seed."

"Okay. Thanks again." Gupta repeated, as he re-shouldered his bag and started to look around for Mudkip. He saw him wandering into the flower shop, seemingly mesmerised by how nice it looked. He sighed and walked after the dopey thing.

The inside of the flower shop was colourful, to say the least. The walls were painted a cheery yellow, the floor was made of patterned brown wood, and the space in between was filled to the brim with flowers of all kinds. Behind the counter, a woman sat counting up the day's takings, while two younger women stood at the back of the shop talking animatedly with a familiar face. Mudkip smiled when he saw Sadik, walking right up to the trainer.

"Kip!" He greeted.

"Ah, hey Mudkip," Sadik smiled, reaching down to stroke the starter, who rolled onto his back contentedly. "And where's your trainer, eh?"

"Over here." Gupta stated, walking towards Sadik and Mudkip.

"Heh, hey Guppie!" He smiled, waving over to Gupta, before noticing Taillow. "Oh wow, did ya catch a new Pokémon? Cool!" He walked over to Gupta and spoke to Taillow, still sat on his shoulder. Mudkip frowned at the loss of affection before noticing Gupta, rolling back onto his front, and trotting over to his trainer.

"I'm Sadik, nice to meet ya." Sadik grinned.

Taillow looked as if she didn't know quite what to make of Sadik. Mudkip sat at Gupta's feet and smiled.

"Did ya name it yet?" Sadik asked, changing the subject.

"No." Gupta shrugged.

"Oh. Well, never mind, it didn't ever seem to be a thing for ya anyway..." He muttered.

"Do you know this person?" One of the shop girls asked, getting Sadik's attention.

"Yeah, this is the friend I was tellin' ya about." He answered.  
"That's great!" She enthused, while Gupta stood around and wondered how he could count as such a good friend that Sadik was talking about him despite only knowing the teen for two days.

"You should have one of these too," the other girl insisted, holding out something to Gupta.

"Yeah!" Sadik encouraged. "That's a Wailmer Pail Guppie, it'll let ya water berry plants ya see along yer travels. And that makes them grow better."

"Okay, why not?" Gupta agreed, accepting the tool from the girl. Mudkip stared at it, seemingly unhappy for whatever reason. He appeared to slip into thought.  
"Oh! And you should have some berries too." The first girl smiled, handing Gupta some more berries. He wasn't sure exactly what type they were.

"Heh, now we can do some gardening. Great huh?" Sadik enthused.

"Something like that." Gupta accepted. He supposed it was good to help nature...

Suddenly, there was a rustling in the flower display in the middle of the room, causing all three shop girls to look towards the display in clear frustration.

"What? Not again!" The woman behind the counter complained.

"What?" Sadik asked, looking to the girls he had been talking to.  
"We've had some... Issues with a grass-type Pokémon hanging around here." One told Sadik. "It's been sneaking into the flower displays and disguising itself as a plant, and then it takes a drink from the water meant for the flowers!"

"And then, whenever customers like you come here, it wakes up and jumps out at them! Some people have been really scared!" The second girl moaned.

As if on cue, the flowers at the front of the display parted and a Pokémon waddled out, smiling amicably at Sadik and Gupta.

"Saur." The Bulbasaur chirped happily. "Saur!" It jumped up and down before running over to the pair. "Bulba! Saur!"

"You don't have to deal with it if you don't want to..." The woman who had been behind the counter assured. "We can throw it out."  
"Although it'll be back tomorrow." The second shop girl pointed out.

"Ah, no need to do that, I'm sure it means no harm," Sadik decided, crouching down to the Pokemon's level. "Hey," he started. "You sure seem to love people, don't you?"  
"Saur!" Bulbasaur agreed. Mudkip snapped out of his thoughts upon hearing the conversation, and looked around Gupta to watch the Bulbasaur.

"I don't care if it loves people. It scares away the customers." The oldest of the trio sighed.

"Kip!" Mudkip whined at the harsh tone, running from behind Gupta to stand next to the Pokémon, and looking between the humans with a pleading look on his face. "Mud...Kip!"

Sadik looked from Mudkip to the Bulbasaur with an unreadable expression.

"What if I take it?" He answered finally. "The little thing'll be able to meet lots of people by travelling with me, and yer customers won't have to be bugged by rustling flowers and eager Pokémon all the time."

"Kip!" Mudkip barked in affirmation, wagging his tail fin a little and looking to Gupta as if he thought the plan was the best in the world.

"Hmm..." The flower shop woman considered. "I suppose if you don't mind... It would be the best solution." She decided.

"Kip!" Mudkip cheered.

"Great!" Sadik smiled, picking up the Bulbasaur. "Now you can come see the world with me," he stated.

"Saur!" Bulbasaur accepted, smiling at Sadik.

"Okay then, now it's time to meet everyone else," Sadik insisted, setting his new Bulbasaur down on the pathway in front of the flower shop.

"Kip!" Mudkip agreed, running up to the Bulbasaur, having followed the humans out of the flower shop on foot.

"That's Mudkip." Sadik began. "He's actually Guppie's Pokémon, but hopefully yer'll see enough of him."

"Mud! Kip!" Mudkip cheered.

"Guppie's this guy," Sadik explained, pointing to Gupta. "And this is his Taillow."  
"Low." Taillow chirped, introducing herself with a nod. Sadik smiled before getting his two filled Pokeballs out of his bag and letting out the Pokémon inside.

"Chic!" Ates chirped as he emerged into the air and looked around.

"Yeh?" Asena barked, quickly surveying the area before sitting down calmly.

"This is Ates and Asena," Sadik introduced, pointing to the two Pokémon. Ates followed his trainer's gaze to the Bulbasaur and and smiled at the sight of a new Pokémon, running up to Bulbasaur and head-butting it playfully and gently. When Bulbasaur reacted by smiling and licking Ates, the Torchic appeared to be very happy, despite the moisture. Not wanting to be left out, Mudkip sidled up and licked Bulbasaur who nuzzled back. When Ates noticed Mudkip, he chirped out a greeting, and the three Pokémon seemed to fall into conversation with each other, while Taillow and Asena looked on, not wanting to get involved.

"Yena." Asena shook her head, not understanding the other Pokémon.

"Tail." Taillow agreed.

"Okay then, let's get you a Pokeball." Sadik decided, walking up to the Bulbasaur.

"Saur?" Bulbasaur questioned, looking at Sadik closely as he pulled out an empty Pokeball and showed it to the Pokémon.

"I mean really, ya could just jump right in." He suggested.

Bulbasaur looked interested in the device, and walked right up to it before pressing its face against the button while trying to sniff the ball. The Pokémon was drawn inside the ball, which flashed a few times before clicking. Mudkip and Ates both stared after the Pokémon as it was captured, looking a little upset their playtime had been interrupted.

"That was easy." Gupta commented.

"Yeah. I suppose it didn't resist at all," Sadik argued, before getting out his Pokedex to scan the ball containing the new Pokémon.

"Huh?" He murmured upon seeing the screen.

"What's wrong?" Gupta asked.

"It says there's no data." Sadik answered. "I'll have to ask cuz about it next time we get to a Pokémon centre. It is weird though."

"Yeah." Gupta nodded.

Meanwhile, Mudkip had shaken off the disappointment of not being able to play more and had wandered over to the berry plants that were still growing to the side of the path. He had seen Gupta get a watering vessel of some sort, but thought that his own idea was far better.

"Kip!" He shouted to get the attention of the humans, who turned towards him and wandered over.

"What is it Mudkip?" Gupta enquired.

"Mud! Kip!" Mudkip exclaimed as he sprayed a Water Gun into the air. The water fell onto the plants... And onto Gupta, Sadik and the other Pokémon. Taillow ruffled her feathers in annoyance, and Ates looked particularly upset. Asena didn't seem to care.

"Mudkip, no. We have watering cans for a reason." Gupta scolded.

"Kip..." Mudkip whined, running up to Gupta and pressing into his legs in apology.

"Aww, I'm sure he meant no harm." Sadik stated.

"Chic." Ates agreed, walking up to Mudkip and attempting to pat him on the head with his wing. Mudkip smiled again.

"Anyway," Sadik continued, picking Ates up and putting him on his shoulder. "We should get moving. The sun's settin' already."

"Right." Gupta agreed, beginning to walk. Sadik followed, with Asena keeping easy pace with her trainer, and Mudkip ran along behind, not realising they were beginning to move, as usual.

It had been genuinely late when Gupta and Sadik had started again their walk towards Rustboro: the flower shop closed just after they left,and most of the Trainers on the Route had gone home, leading to a quiet walk. Sadik kept commenting on the things they saw to try to keep it interesting.

"Guess we have to cross that bridge now." He pointed out after a few minutes of walking, once they had reached the lake.

"Chic..." Ates complained, not liking the idea of water.

"Kip!" Mudkip cheered, jumping in.

"Mudkip, get out of the water." Gupta sighed. Mudkip just started swimming towards the other side, leaving everyone else to walk along the bridge.

Midway across the lake, the bridge turned a sheer 90 degrees and continued horizontally for a few metres before turning back to the vertical and continuing to the opposite shore. On the horizontal stretch, two little girls were still standing despite the late hour.

"Aha! Trainers!" The first yelled upon spotting Sadik and Gupta, smiling to herself.

"Okay!" The second cheered. "We get to battle you!"  
"Twins huh..." Sadik mused, noticing the near complete similarity between the two girls. "Wanna take 'em two on two?" He asked, looking to Gupta.

"Whatever." He agreed.

"Alright." Sadik stepped up to the girls. "I'm Sadik and this is Gupta. We'll take ya on."

"Cool," The first of the girls giggled. "I'm Mia and this is Gina."

Gupta walked up to the twins, looking them over in surprise. They were perhaps... Six? Seven? What were they doing out so late without their parents?

"Ready? Go Seedot!" The first twin shouted, throwing a Pokeball at the wood of the bridge.  
"Go Lotad!" The second twin echoed.

"See?" Seedot questioned.

"Tad!" Lotad reassured, looking towards its teammate.

"Taillow." Gupta decided, looking to his Pokémon who nodded at him before swooping down to land on the board-walk. Mudkip continued to swim towards the shore, not noticing his trainer had stopped.

"Asena, this looks like something you can handle." Sadik chose. Asena padded forwards to face the Pokémon.

"Seedot, Harden! Lotad, Absorb on the Poochyena!" The girls shouted in unison.

"Taillow, Peck on Seedot," Gupta told his Pokémon. Taillow nodded and swooped forwards to Peck Seedot, which reacted by curling into itself. Meanwhile, Asena was caught by the Lotad, which latched onto her and began to drain her energy.

"Tackle to get it off!" Sadik commanded. Asena rolled and shook to dislodge the Lotad and then slammed into it once it had come loose.

"Tad..." Lotad whined as it was slammed into the lake.

As Sadik focused on the battle, a small flash covered his bag for a moment, before the Bulbasaur poked its head out curiously, wondering how it got in a bag.

"Lotad, Absorb again!" The twins shouted. "Seedot, use Bide!"

"Geh..." Sadik muttered, turning to Gupta. "When Lotad uses Absorb, it recovers energy by sapping it from the other Pokémon. And Bide allows Pokémon to store energy from attacks and then release it all back at the enemy at once." As he spoke, Lotad climbed out of the water.

"Right." Gupta acknowledged. "Taillow, Peck Lotad."

"Tail!" Taillow chirped, swooping in and pecking at Lotad before it could attempt to sap Asena's strength.

"Asena, Tackle it!" Sadik declared. Asena leapt towards the Lotad, and also managed to beat it to the punch, hitting Lotad and sending it back into the water before it could attack. The Pokémon was able to float on the surface of the water, but appeared too tired to do anything else.

"Return Lotad." One of the twins sighed. Seedot kept trying to store energy.

"Peck again Taillow." Gupta repeated.

"Tackle one last time Asena!" Sadik followed. Both Pokémon did as directed, and executed a double attack on Seedot before the Pokémon could unleash its meagre amount of stored energy, sending it flying down the board-walk in the process. It landed fairly hard, and appeared to be unconscious.  
"Aww, you guys were too strong." One of the twins complained, as the other returned her Pokémon to the ball.

"Yeah. But it was still fun." She giggled.

"You can have this." The girls chorused in unison, each holding out a few coins. Sadik took the money from the girls and handed some of it to Gupta, who couldn't help but feel awkward.

"Anyway, we'd better go home." The first twin stated.

"We don't want our parents to be mad." The second agreed.

"Bye!" They called together, waving as they ran towards Rustboro.

As Gupta continued to stand there awkwardly, Mudkip reached the far shore of the lake, and looked around to find his trainer on the bridge still.

"Kip!" He called back to Gupta, sitting on the grass and pouting.

"We'd better move." Sadik commented. "It'll be dark real soon too."

Gupta nodded and began to walk with Sadik towards the edge of the lake. As he moved, Taillow and Asena followed, looking towards each other with respect. Bulbasaur ducked down into Sadik's bag, smelling food. Nobody noticed it.

By the time they had reached dry land, Mudkip had already wandered off to the East of the bridge, and was sniffing at some berry plants. Sadik walked up and picked the berries before planting some so new plants would grow. Mudkip eagerly started watering them and Sadik made sure to get away quickly, handing some berries to Gupta.

"Those ones'll restore the PP of your Pokemon's moves." He explained. Once again, Gupta wondered what he was talking about.

"And then those ones there heal Paralysis." Sadik continued.

"...You know a lot." Gupta stated.

"Heh. Guess it comes from helpin' my cuz out all the time." He shrugged.

As he took his bag off of his shoulders to put the berries away, Bulbasaur leapt out, landing on the grass and beginning to look around. It noticed Mudkip watering the plants still and decided to walk over to say hello. As it did so, it slipped on some wet grass and fell into the lake. Immediately, the Pokémon began to struggle, not being able to swim. Asena noticed this, and began to race towards the ailing Pokémon.

"Asena?" Sadik questioned, following his Pokémon with his eyes until he noticed the scene with the drowning Pokémon.

"Damnit! How'd it get there?" He questioned. Mudkip heard the commotion, stopped watering the flowers and turned around. He noticed the struggling Bulbasaur, and frowned heavily. A few seconds passed before he appeared to realise something.

"Kip! Mudkip!" He yelled, running towards the lake and leaping in just as Asena jumped into the water and began paddling towards Bulbasaur. They both reached it at the same time, and Asena held one leg in her jaw, Mudkip another as they towed the Pokémon towards the edge of the lake. Sadik reached down and scooped all three up once they were close enough.

"How did you even get out of the Pokeball?" He asked the Bulbasaur. "Guess I'll have to keep an eye on ya."

"Saur..." Bulbasaur whined, clearly not liking being wet.

"Kip..." Mudkip pouted, nuzzling the Pokémon. Asena rolled her eyes.

"Thanks." Sadik smiled at Asena, petting her a little before putting all three Pokémon down. "And Mudkip too."

"Kip!" Mudkip barked.

As the group began to walk back towards the proper path, the sun now very low in the sky and darkness beginning to set in, Sadik noticed a trainer sat on the bank of the lake, fishing rod in hand.

"Wonder if he wants to battle." He mused. "He'd probably have water Pokémon, which would be good for this one." He looked towards Bulbasaur, who was staring back at him, Asena now walking on the Pokemon's other side to stop it falling back in the lake.

Gupta stared at the man. He was far older than any other trainer he had seen so far. In fact, he was older even than Sadik or Gupta, and perhaps even older than his mother. It was hard to tell, as the growing darkness shrouded the man's features, and his back was turned anyway.

"Hey!" Sadik called, trying to get the man's attention.

"Hm?" He questioned, turning around. "Ah. Hello. I assume you want to battle me." He smiled.

"Right." Sadik confirmed.

"That's nice. I wanted to try my team out anyway." The man agreed. "My name's Ivan by the way. Anyway, go Magikarp!"

"Karp!" Magikarp floundered.

"Okay Bulbasaur." Sadik chose.

"Saur!" Bulbasaur smiled, walking up to the Pokémon... then past the Pokémon... Then up to the trainer. Ivan laughed as Bulbasaur tried to lick him.

"Not very well trained is it?" He commented.  
"Ugh, here Bulbasaur! We need to battle!" Sadik complained.

"Saur!" Bulbasaur understood, moving back to stand in front of Sadik. "Saur!"

"Bulbasaur looks young enough to only know Tackle at the moment, so I'll stick with that and hope his Pokémon aren't strong." Sadik theorised to himself.

"Magikarp, Splash!" The fisherman commanded. The fish Pokémon splashed around uselessly.

"Bulbasaur, Tackle!" Sadik advised. The Pokémon charged forwards and slammed the opponent.

"Heh, you're strong, but we're tougher!" Ivan declared. "Splash again Magikarp!"

Gupta sighed to himself as he watched the fish continue to flop about hopelessly. Was that all that thing could do? How was this meant to even count as an attack, let alone a strong one? He wondered if maybe the man's strategy was to tire out Bulbasaur before using his next Pokémon to wipe it out.

Twenty minutes of splashing around and three Magikarp later, the fisherman was defeated, Bulbasaur was unscratched, and Gupta couldn't believe what he had just seen.

"Wow, you're tough. But we almost had you." Ivan insisted. "You can have this prize money... But I'll beat you one day."

"Okay, sure." Sadik accepted, trying his hardest not to look amused.

"Saur!" Bulbasaur celebrated.

Darkness had fallen by the time Sadik and Gupta got moving again. Asena appeared not to mind, staring out into the blackness as if she was used to it. Taillow had fallen asleep on Gupta's shoulder. Bulbasaur looked curious as to whether anything would appear, and continued to look around, often following Asena's gaze as if trying to figure out what she was staring at. Mudkip was scared.

"Kiiippp..." He whined, leaning into Gupta's legs. He sighed and bent down to pick his Pokémon up.

"Heh, it's pretty dark eh?" Sadik commented.

"We spent too much time. It got dark." Gupta seconded.

"Yeah, but it was fun. And we got a Pokémon out of it." Sadik pointed out.

"You did." Gupta corrected.

"Whatever, we're almost there." Sadik shrugged. As if on cue, the pair set foot onto the actual paved road that led into Rustboro. As they continued to walk, houses became visible in the distance, their lit windows like a beacon to guide the travellers in.

"Now we just need to find a Pokémon Centre for the night." Sadik decided. "We can sleep there."

"Oh." Gupta observed.

As the pair made their way into Rustboro proper, street-lights began to line the road they were walking along. Mudkip relaxed visibly. The first thought that came to Gupta's mind was of how large the city was; the lights of houses spread in every direction, save for the one they had come from, for as far as he could see. To their left, Gupta saw some sort of apartment complex. Immediately ahead of them, Gupta saw a Pokemart, still open despite the late hour. As they drew near to it, he noticed a sign on the side of the path.

'Rustboro City- The city probing the integration of nature and science' it read.

"All the towns have signs like that." Sadik told him. "Have you not noticed before?"

"No." Gupta mused. He'd have to check when he went back to Petalburg next.

The path swerved to the right, and Gupta and Sadik followed it, passing a large house that Gupta couldn't help but feel could be significant somehow. A little way up the road, essentially upwards of the Pokemart, the Pokémon Centre stood. There was a house to the left of it, and some sort of complex with a fountain and buildings to the right of it, but the need for rest overtook the group, and neither Sadik nor Gupta had any desire to explore.

"Good Evening! Welcome to the Pokémon Centre!" The woman behind the counter greeted as they walked in. "Would you like to rest your Pokémon?"  
"Yeah, thanks." Sadik agreed, returning Asena to her Pokeball with little fuss and handing over both her and Ates's Pokeballs before turning to Bulbasaur.  
"You too." He insisted, returning it to the ball.

"Okay, I'll heal them right away." The nurse said with a smile, before turning to Gupta.

"And you?"

Gupta nodded, returning Mudkip and Taillow to their Pokeballs.

"Okay, give me a few seconds." The nurse asked, firing up the machine in the back of the centre.

"Do the two of you have anywhere to stay?" She asked, making conversation.

"Nope." Sadik admitted.

"Really? Where are you from?" She asked.  
"Littleroot Town." Sadik responded.

"Oh, really? Come to challenge the Gym, right?" She assumed.

"Yeah, the Leader in Petalburg doesn't challenge new trainers." Sadik filled in.  
"That's right. It's because of the school in this city, right?" The nurse guessed. "You probably already know that Littleroot's too far away to be reached tonight, so you can stay here if you want. There are rooms upstairs." She stopped to think. "Although, we are a little busy. So I hope you two don't mind sharing a room."

"Not at all! Sleep is sleep." Sadik assured.

"Okay, that's good." The nurse smiled, taking the Pokémon out of the machine and handing them back to their trainers. "Here." She handed Sadik some sort of key. "It should open one of the rooms upstairs."

"Thanks." Sadik smiled at the woman, before turning towards the escalator. "Should we?"

Gupta nodded and walked towards the escalator. Sadik was about to follow when the nurse spoke again.

"Oh, and congratulations on catching a female Bulbasaur, they're really rare these days," she commented, before turning to her desk and fiddling with some things.

"Huh," Sadik commented as he made his way towards the escalator.

Upstairs, a corridor with a row of doors greeted Sadik and Gupta. The walls were still neutrally coloured, and the floor was still linoleum. Sadik moved to walk ahead of Gupta and carried on down the row, trying to match the numbers on the doors to the number on the key he had been given. Once they had found the correct door, Sadik opened it and they went inside.

The walls of this room were also a neutral white, although the floor was wooden this time around. The room itself was incredibly small, and comprised only of a bunk-bed against the right wall, a desk against the wall opposite the door and a partition along half of the left wall that created an alcove which had a shower in it. The rest of the left wall was taken up by the window. Sadik appeared not to care for the lack of space, tossing his bag onto the floor and releasing his Pokémon from their balls (which had still been in his hands after being given back to him), before leaping up onto the top bunk.

"Well, might as well get some rest." He commented. Gupta nodded, sending out his own Pokémon before placing his bag at the foot of the bed gently and climbing onto the bottom bunk. Mudkip looked up at him and whined, and Gupta sighed, picking up his Pokémon and placing it onto the bed. Like the night before, Mudkip smiled before curling up and sleeping on the duvet. Taillow decided to fly up onto the desk where she curled up and roosted. Ates and Bulbasaur looked up at Sadik in dismay, while Asena curled up at the foot of the bed, not caring about where she slept.

"Hmm." Sadik thought to himself, stripping off his clothes and throwing them to the floor (causing Bulbasaur to have to dodge a flying shirt, something she didn't look happy about). "We need a name for Bulbasaur." He swooped down onto the floor to pick Ates and Bulbasaur up (and Gupta didn't find it all that impressive, especially with the lack of clothes), and then climbed back up, settling under the covers and placing his Pokémon on top of the duvet. Ates jumped onto the pillow before settling for sleep, while Bulbasaur sat on Sadik's chest and watched him.

"I suppose... Lale would be good." He decided.

"Bulba!" Lale agreed.

Gupta noted the name, but didn't pay much attention to Sadik other than that, as he leaned back over to get his bag, and started rummaging around for his pyjamas so he could get to sleep himself.

"Heh, I dunno about rare as such. But I know I've never seen whatever kind of Pokémon yer are before." Sadik continued, as Gupta got changed calmly before folding his clothes and placing them on the floor next to his bag before settling down for sleep.

"We can ask your cousin about it by videophone tomorrow or something." He suggested, feeling tired.

"Somethin' like that." Sadik shrugged, laying fully flat. Lale settled down herself, closing her eyes, but still having one more thing to say before she slept.

"Bulba...Saur."


	11. The Trainer's School

Gupta- Mudkip level 11, Taillow level 8; Sadik- Torchic (Ates), level 12, Poochyena (Asena), level 11, Bulbasaur (Lale), Level 6.

4 New characters! Kiku is (perhaps obviously) Japan, Mei is Taiwan, Li is Hong Kong and Hue is Vietnam.

Kiku is around 18 or 19, and so described by Gupta as an 'older teen' to Gupta/Sadik's 15 or so years of age. Hue is around the same age as Kiku, but her demeanour makes her appear in her early twenties to onlookers. Not that she's particularly grumpy, just really mature. Mei and Li are the same sort of age as Gupta and Sadik (which still makes them older than most Pokémon trainers out on the streets).

* * *

The next morning, Gupta was awoken early by Taillow singing at the sun as it peeked in through the curtains. He sat up groggily to find Mudkip sprawled over his feet, watching him curiously. He decided to get moving, and climbed out of bed to get dressed. As he pulled on a T-shirt, he turned back towards the bed and saw that Sadik was still sleeping, Lale still on his chest and Ates having fallen from the pillow onto the mattress. Asena was waking up, uncurling from her place on the floor and yawning a little. Things appeared to be largely peaceful.

Then Mudkip decided he was bored.

"Kiiip!" He whined, jumping around on the bed.

"What?" Gupta asked.

"Kip..." Mudkip repeated, jumping down onto the floor and wandering up to Gupta, nuzzling his legs. "Mud-kip!"  
"We can get moving later. Once Sadik wakes up." His trainer promised.

Mudkip smiled easily, moving over to the foot of the bed again and looking up at the sleeping Sadik. Gupta guessed what he was going to do.

"Mudkip, no." He warned.

Mudkip didn't even look at him before spitting water up at Sadik.

Said trainer sat up spluttering, while Ates got hit with some of the spray and began to panic, running around over the mattress in distress. Lale felt the spray run down her face and began licking it.

"Mudkip." Gupta scolded. "No."

"Kip?" Mudkip replied, turning his head to the side innocently.

"Ugh, I really hope he won't do that every morning," Sadik complained, getting out of bed and rummaging in his bag for a towel so he could dry his face and get dressed.

"Saur," Lale shrugged, clearly not minding. Ates shook the water from his feathers and decided payback was in order.

"Chic!" He protested, using Ember back at Mudkip before jumping from the top of the bed to attempt to body slam the Pokémon from above. Mudkip was hit straight on by both attacks, but did little more than laugh, wiggle out from underneath Ates, and walk away. The Torchic chased him, and it soon turned into a game.

"They get on so well," Sadik commented, pulling on a shirt and picking Lale up from her place on the bed. Asena looked over to Ates and Mudkip and appeared to roll her eyes. Taillow stopped singing to stare at what was going on before fluttering over to Gupta and landing on his shoulder.

"I suppose," the smaller teen relented.

"Okay, so it's as simple as asking 'cuz what exactly went wrong with his Pokedex thing so that it didn't register Lale." Sadik summarised later on, after the two trainers had gathered their Pokémon and their things and headed downstairs to use the videophones.

"Something like that," Gupta agreed.

"Right then, guess we'll have to try it." Sadik decided, inputting a number into the machine. A few lights blinked, and the screen turned on. After a few more seconds, Batsaikhan's face appeared on the monitor.

"Ah, Sadik," He greeted upon seeing his younger cousin. "Something to report?"

"Just this," Sadik shrugged, holding up Lale.

"Where in the name of Arceus did you find that Bulbasaur?" The professor explained. "They're not native to Hoenn!"  
"Flower shop," Sadik described. "They hated her because she kept upsetting the customers. Don't see why."

"Hmm..." Batsaikhan thought for a moment. "I suppose... She could have snuck in with a shipment of flowers from another region. That would have explained how she got there in the first place."

"Yeah, sure, whatever works for ya." Sadik hurried. "But problem is, she don't show up in the Pokedex."

"Right. That would be because it's a regional Pokedex, not a national one. I'd have to upgrade it to have data on Pokémon native to Kanto. For now, I'd write some details down on paper if I were you." The professor suggested.

"Fine by me cuz. Now if ya excuse me, I gotta battle this Gym Leader," Sadik finished.

"Very well. Call again if anything happens," Batsaikhan accepted, hanging up.

"To the Gym!" Sadik grinned, walking off with Lale still under his arm.

Gupta looked after him and wondered if he should have spoken to the professor at all. Maybe he had wanted to rate their Pokedexes too or something? Sadik had hurried the man to let them go a little too quickly to tell.

Upon stepping out into the daytime Rustboro City, the first thing that struck Gupta was the number of people. He was used to seeing crowds (you didn't grow up in Goldenrod without learning to deal with them), but the city had seemed dead before, and he was surprised at the sheer numbers of people, many of them children. Looking from side to side from the perspective of the Pokémon centre, he noticed the Trainer's School, and remembered that beginning trainers were expected to go there. He supposed many of the children were attending that school, and so began walking towards the building to investigate.

Inside the Pokémon Trainer's School, many young kids and their Pokémon sat at tables, discussing strategies, swapping items and challenging each other to battles. As Gupta walked in, he noticed Sadik standing at the front of the school building, next to a blackboard on the far wall. Ates had been let out of his Pokeball and was chasing some other Pokémon around, while Lale was sitting on one of the desks, seemingly holding her own in a conversation with two human girls... Somehow. Sadik himself was arguing with someone who was apparently sat at the teacher's desk. Gupta had assumed it to be another young girl at first, but then she stood up, and it became obvious to the teenager that she was a grown woman.

She was tall enough to pass as an adult for one, although she had nothing on Sadik in terms of height. Her hair was done in a low ponytail that reached almost down to her waist, and she was wearing a green dress that had been slit almost all of the way up to her hip to make it at least slightly practical. He noted she was wearing some sort of white garment over her legs, leaving very little skin on show overall. The other important thing he noticed about her was her sour expression. In fact, she looked like the kind of person who couldn't physically smile even if they wanted to. And in that moment, it appeared she didn't want to smile.

"Look, my cuz is the professor in Littleroot Town, I've had the lecture a thousand times or more... Just get on with it and let me battle the Gym Leader already!" Sadik complained. Gupta walked up to him.

"What's going on?" He asked.

"Guppie, she says we can't battle the Gym Leader until we sit in on one of her lectures!" Sadik pouted.

"We don't let just any rookies challenge the Gym," the woman sighed. Gupta noted that she appeared very serious. He remembered his mother's words.

"I suppose you don't want to waste your time with people who can't even control Pokémon." He assumed.

"Right," she nodded.

"Huh? You mean... She's the Leader?" Sadik gasped. "I was expecting someone..."

"Older? Taller? Male?" She guessed, getting more annoyed by the second. "I've heard it all before. Many have bravado like you and fall before they get anywhere near me."  
"Er..." Sadik looked down.

"We'll just sit and listen," Gupta finished for him, diplomatically pulling Sadik out of the way and into a chair before he could dig himself into a hole. Ates noticed Gupta and walked over for a hug, while Lale seemed content in her present position being fussed over. The teenager picked up Sadik's Pokémon and ruffled his feathers a little while the Gym Leader cleared her throat and began talking.

"Basics of Pokémon battling," she announced, causing multiple students to turn to the front and fall silent. Lale was confused as to why she was no longer being spoken to, and decided to try to get the attention of the one person left talking.  
"The most important thing to remember is to keep an eye on your Pokemon's hit points. Don't let them hit zero, or they'll be unable to battle. If you lose all your Pokémon out there, you'll black out and lose some of the money you're carrying."

"Why?" Gupta wondered aloud.

"Nobody knows. It's creepy," Sadik answered. As they spoke, Lale jumped down onto the floor from the desk she had been perched on and began to walk towards the speaker.

"Next are statuses." The woman continued, not noticing. "I made sure to make notes on the different statuses and how to cure them on the board." She waved to the whiteboard. "Don't let your Pokémon linger with a status condition; it will only hurt it."

Several of the students looked to each other and around the room. Others were taking notes, while more still were whispering to each other. Other than the teacher, Sadik and Gupta were easily the oldest in the room.

"Now, can anyone tell me who a Pokémon Trainer is?" The Gym Leader asked.

"Someone who catches, raises, and battles with Pokémon." Sadik sighed, clearly bored.

"Right." The woman nodded. "And that makes you all trainers. Trainers have a responsibility to be good to their Pokémon."

Some of the younger trainers in the room looked down to their bags, seemingly contemplating the Pokémon inside.

"And that means taking care of them, from when you first catch them for as long as you're together." She continued.

"How many Pokémon can I catch?" Asked one of the girls in the front.

"You can only carry six Pokémon with you. The rest will go to a computer storage system. There's space in the computer for hundreds more than that."

"What happens inside the computer?" Asked a boy sitting near the back.

"Pokémon Professors normally put the Pokémon on their land." Sadik shouted out. "So they end up looked after." Several children looked at him, wondering how he knew. "Just please, don't do something like catching thirty Tauros. And no more Magikarp." He added to himself.

"Right. So be kind to any professors you meet." The woman decided. "That's just catching Pokémon though. Most trainers want to battle and be the best they can be, or take part in contests. It doesn't matter which you choose. But if you want to battle, your ultimate goal will be the eight Gym Leaders scattered around Hoenn."

"Like miss Hue!" One of the children pointed out.

"...Yes. Like me." Said woman accepted. "Now, when fighting a Gym Leader... AH!" She jumped, looking down to her leg to find Lale resting her front paws against her ankle, trying to say hello. She reached down and picked the Bulbasaur up. "Whose is this?" She questioned.

Sadik raised his hand. "Sorry about her." He apologised. Gupta felt a little bit of second hand embarrassment, and looked down to his lap to find Ates asleep there.

"It can't be helped. She looks very young." Hue replied, handing Lale back to Sadik. The Bulbasaur snuggled into his arms. " You really need to keep an eye on her."

"Sure thing." Sadik nodded.

"Anyway, that more or less covers everything. Any people with questions can come see me at the front." She finished.

Half of the students packed their stuff up and ran out of the door, possibly to go and practice. Gupta looked around after only a minute to see just five kids left in the room. One was scribbling notes furiously, two were sat together and the other two were loitering around. Picking up Ates, he decided to get up and walk over to the whiteboard, the Torchic now sleeping in his arms, and passed by the two loitering kids as he did so. Without warning, they both started speaking to him.

"You know, Pokémon can hold items. But they can't do anything with man made items like potions," the boy described.

"Okay," Gupta nodded, trying to walk past. The girl then spoke up.

"Pokémon can be confused by certain moves, and then they might attack themselves. But when they leave battle, they will return to normal." She rambled.

"..." Gupta just walked away. He wasn't even sure how a Pokémon could attack itself, and he certainly didn't know why people kept trying to talk to him like that. It was as if they were trying to explain everything there was to know about Pokémon to him... For some reason.

As he got closer to the front of the classroom, the two boys sitting close together turned around to look at him.

"We're trading Pokémon," one stated.

"Good for you," Gupta brushed off, not wanting to be caught in any more conversations. He carried on to the whiteboard and looked it over. It was nearly completely full with information. He gave it a skim read, and found that a lot of the status conditions were very similar- for example, both poison and burn caused a Pokémon to lose health, although burn also caused a drop in attack (whatever that meant). Being paralysed meant a chance of not being able to attack, while being frozen or asleep meant being completely unable to attack. Both freezing and sleep had a chance of going away on their own, but the others would not. The way to heal each condition was also obvious.

Deciding he'd spent enough time on the blackboard, Gupta looked back around to see Sadik arguing with Hue again.

"What do you mean we still can't battle?!" He exclaimed.

"Any self respecting Gym Leader knows not to fight without their Gym Trainers to back them up. Both of mine are not at the Gym at the moment." She replied cooly.

"Fine, I just gotta find 'em then." Sadik huffed, turning around to look at Gupta.

"Oh, good, ya got Ates still," he noticed, reaching out for his Pokémon. Gupta wondered where Lale had gone, until he felt her rubbing her face into his leg. He handed Ates to Sadik and reached down to pet Lale.

"I'm gonna go find these Gym Trainers of hers. Ya can come too," Sadik suggested, beginning to walk towards the door. Gupta moved as if to follow him, but he was stopped by Hue calling him back.

"Wait. Take this." She offered, handing him some sort of claw. "It's a Quick Claw. It might let a Pokémon go first if you give it to them," she explained.

"Thanks," Gupta nodded, exiting the school while wondering exactly why she had given him something like that.

"Okay, so I guess if we split up and look in different houses together?" Sadik planned as soon as they were both outside, Lale now following her trainer and Ates having woken up and perched on Sadik's shoulders.

"Different houses? We're going to walk in on people?" Gupta mused.

"Yep! Didn't ya know? People around here really don't care if people walk right into their houses. Ya can talk to all kinds of people." Sadik told. "Anyway, I'll take the area to the east of the Pokémon Centre over there, so see ya later!" He waved as he walked off, and Ates turned around and waved too.

Sighing, Gupta decided he'd better at least try to find the Gym Trainers. He noticed a track to the side of the Trainer's School and decided to follow it. He came across a house, but he didn't really feel right about going in. Wanting to stall, he decided to check on his Pokémon.

"Low." Taillow chirped, fluttering up onto his shoulder as she was let out.

"Kip!" Mudkip cheered upon seeing Gupta, before walking up to the door of the house.

"Mudkip..." Gupta sighed. Mudkip pushed the door open with his head.

"Aww, cute!" Sang a little girl inside the house. Gupta stuck his head through the door and reached out a hand to retrieve Mudkip.

"Sorry," he apologised. "We're looking for the Gym Trainers. Apparently they're not in the Gym."

"Oh, right, of course," the girl's mother smiled. "Not to worry. They work for the Devon Corporation during the day. So try looking around on Devon property."

"Um, okay, thanks." Gupta replied, feeling awkward again. He left as quickly as he could.

Gupta couldn't see anything belonging to Devon even after backtracking to the Trainer's School, so he decided to head in the only direction he hadn't yet ventured in, heading north, with Mudkip following along behind him and Taillow on his shoulder. After a few minutes, two more buildings came into view. One was a small yellow building with various signs attached to it pointing it out as the Pokémon Gym. The other was tall and ornate, with the appearance of a cathedral or similar building. Gupta walked up to the gate and stared at the sign.

'Devon Corporation- "For all your living needs, we make it all,"' the sign read. Realising this was probably the best place to look, the teenager walked inside.

"Hello, and welcome to the Devon Corporation, proud producers of items and medicine that enhance your life." The receptionist rattled off almost as soon as he stepped in through the door, voice the kind of cheery that came through years of practice and smile just a little too bright.

"I'm looking for the Rustboro Gym's Trainers." Gupta explained. "Kip!" Mudkip agreed, walking into the building behind Gupta. And then walking into Gupta, who picked him up before he could do anything else.

"Ah, a challenger? Okay." The girl shrugged, stepping out from behind the counter and shouting further into the building.

"Someone take over for me!"

"You're a Gym Trainer?" Gupta assumed.

"Yep! Anyway, we'd better find my brother too," the girl added. "He's still loafing around at home, I think."

"Oh." Gupta replied curtly, feeling a little awkward.

"My name's Mei by the way," the girl carried on, beginning to walk back towards the exit.

"Gupta." Said teen responded.

Mei had taken him all of the way back to the entrance of the city and into the apartment building he had seen yesterday, and Gupta was already feeling a little annoyed by the distance and the two flights of stairs he had had to climb to get this far. The boy he had found lazing on the sofa in the top floor apartment of the building was not helping matters.

"So like, you want to battle or something, right?" He assumed. "I suppose I can do that. I mean, it's not like I couldn't do it..."

"...Can you get to the point?" Gupta requested, feeling that the other teenager was adding unnecessary length.

"Well I suppose. I'll be over in a few minutes." The boy decided, getting up and moving into another room.

"Sorry about Li." Mei sighed. "He's like that."

Gupta would be lying if he'd said he didn't mind, so he didn't. He only nodded, glad his traipse around the city was over.

Mei had told him to head back outside and wait for a while until she and her brother were ready to head down to the Gym, so Gupta went back to the Trainer's School to wait for Sadik. He saw the crowds gathered around the School before he even got close.  
"Wow, he's really cool!" One kid commented.

Since most of the gathered crowd were small children, Gupta was able to see over their heads, to regard Sadik and Lale battling (and beating) a Youngster.

"Aww, nuts." The child sighed.

"Chic!" Ates cheered, sitting on the sign for the school.

"Kip!" Mudkip waved at the fellow starter. Ates smiled.

"Another win in the bag, eh?" The teenager boasted.

"Indeed. In fact, at this rate the Gym should be no problem for you," commented an older teen who was standing next to Sadik. Gupta found himself staring. Who was that guy? He'd never seen him before.

The man was a similar height to Gupta, but had straight black hair and the darkest coloured eyes the boy had ever seen. Sadik turned to the man and smiled easily, making Gupta believe that they had to be friends... But then, didn't Sadik make friends quickly? Had he met the man in the city just a short while ago? He certainly looked as though he could be related to the two teenagers he'd just been talking to. Overall, Gupta was confused.

As he pondered over who the other teenager was, Sadik noticed him.

"Guppie! Hey!" He greeted, reaching out a hand to pull him through the crowd.

"...You've been battling the whole time?" Gupta dead-panned.

"Well... Yeah, actually." Sadik laughed a little. "Funny story is, I got into a battle with a kid after the first place I checked out. And then he wanted me to battle his friend, who wanted me to fight his brother, and it spiralled from there." He looked up and pointed to the crowd. "Before I knew it, I was an attraction."

"Right. I found the Gym Trainers." Gupta filled in.

"Great!" Sadik cheered, before turning to the man. "See I told ya he was good!" Gupta just stared straight ahead.

"Ah, it seems like me you don't really do small talk." The man guessed.

"Is there a point to this?" Gupta asked.

"Yeah!" Sadik protested. "This is my friend Kiku, the one I was tellin' ya about."

"You told me about him...?" Gupta queried.

"Yeah, he's the one who knew all the stuff about computers in Pokémon centres." Sadik clarified.

"Oh, okay." Gupta accepted, roughly remembering that conversation.

"It is good to meet you." Kiku bowed in greeting. "I am Kiku Honda. I was visiting family here when I saw Sadik and decided to stop to catch up."

"Gupta." The teen responded. "I came here to challenge the Gym."

"Kip!" Mudkip greeted, wanting to be in on the introductions. Taillow stayed quiet, but alert.

"Ah, then good luck to you both," Kiku enthused politely. "I suppose I can give you one of these too." He pulled a disc out of his bag and handed it to Gupta. "That is a Hidden Machine, or HM. It will teach Cut to a Pokémon. But to use it properly, you need the Rustboro Gym Badge." He explained.

"Oh. Thanks." Gupta responded, putting the disc away. He wasn't really sure how Gym badges effected anything...

"Anyway, I must take my leave. Good luck." Kiku bowed again before leaving.

"So, guess it's off to the Gym then?" Sadik assumed.

"Do you think you're ready?" Gupta asked, beginning to walk with the man.

"All the training those kids helped me with's got my team ready to go!" Sadik assured.

"Fair enough." Gupta accepted.

As he walked up to the door of the Gym with Sadik, Gupta noticed the same teenagers from before. Mei smiled as he walked closer.

"You're here finally," she pointed out.

"Yeah, you were like, caught up with Kiku for too long." Li complained. Gupta decided they had to be related if he knew his name.

"We're here now!" Sadik exclaimed. "Let me challenge this Gym."  
"Whatever." Li shrugged, walking inside.

"Good luck!" Mei added, following him.

"So, me first?" Sadik asked, practically bouncing on his heels.

"I suppose so." Gupta allowed.

"Cool! Ya could always go and ask cuz some more things or show him your Pokedex or whatever while you wait." Sadik suggested, heading towards the Gym.

"I guess..." Gupta mused to himself.

"Kip." Mudkip agreed.


End file.
